The journalist Ethan Lou discusses his new book on the COVID-19 pandemic Field Notes From a Pandemic: A Journey Through a World Suspended (Signal, 2020), with Joseph Planta.

Field Notes From a Pandemic: A Journey Through a World Suspended by Ethan Lou (Signal, 2020). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Field Notes from a Pandemic

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

The journalist Ethan Lou joins me now. He has just published Field Notes from a Pandemic: A Journey Through a World Suspended. It is one of the first books to document what it’s been like living through the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Lou leaves Toronto in January 2020, just as the novel coronavirus has begun to be talked about in North America. He is going to China to visit his ailing grandfather. He tries to go to Hong Kong next, but then goes to Singapore, where he grew up, and where his parents now live. His plans are to go to parts of Europe, and then the United States, but it’s largely in Germany where he goes next, another place he had spent some time in before, but was obviously very different as the world was shutting down, and people were in quarantine. The book, even though it’s all just this year, gives us a sense of what it was like in different places. It illustrates the struggle many had in getting home from other places, as well as the deep isolation that has surrounded all of us during these past nine months. The world is not back to normal, and as we expect a second wave, I ask Ethan about what we know better and whether we’ll remember those lessons. We talk about leadership and the lack thereof, and we talk about how different the world is and will always be. Ethan Lou was a staff writer for Reuters, and has written for numerous publications including The Guardian, the South China Morning Post, the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Maclean’s, and the Walrus. Visit his website at www.ethanlou.com. This new book is published by Signal, which is an imprint of McClelland & Stewart. We taped this interview last week, Tuesday, 29 September 2020. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Ethan Lou; Mr. Lou, good morning.

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