Germ - Robert Liparulo

"If you breathe, it will find you..."

So goes the theme of Robert Liparulo's second book, Germ, which, after his fantastic debut novel, Comes a Horseman, has refreshed the thriller genre.

In the beginning, we get a glimpse at the horrors to come: A man is dying on a bed from "one of the most lethal viruses known to man." Despesorio Vero is standing over him, pointlessly attempting to aid the man; all the nurses and assistants have run away. Karl Litt is standing by the door, smiling.

From that point onward, Robert Liparulo has devised a story so cunning and full of surprise that even the thought of putting down the book is dreadfully difficult. Suspense has met its master in this book. From page to page, it leads you down dark alleys, disease stricken lands, and finally into the belly of the beast.

Liparulo brings into this story a sense of despair while maintaining that faint glimmer of hope, which he waves in front of you teasingly. At the point when you feel as if your protagonists can't possibly make it, hope returns, though still very faintly.

You will follow them through many tough situations, but always their will to survive, and fear of what might happen if they don't keeps them afloat in the swift current of their circumstance. When Ebola threatens the lives of ten thousand people, they did what no one else could: They went to the ends of the earth (or the beginning depending on how you look at it) to stop the horrors from occurring.

Robert Liparulo has made a incomparably spectacular story in Germ.


Quote From Book

Hardly Resembling a man anymore, the thing on the bed jerked and thrashed like a nocturnal creature dragged into the light of day. His eyes had filled with blood and rolled back into his head, so only crimson orbs glared out from behind swollen, bleeding lids. Black flecks stained his lips, curled back from canted teeth and blistered gums. Blood poured from nostrils, ears, fingernails. Flung from the convulsing body, it streaked up curtains and walls and streamed into dark pools on the tile floor.

Despesorio Vero, clad in a white lab coat, leaned over the body, pushing an intratrachael tube down the patient's throat; his fingers were slick on the instrument. He snapped his head away from the crimson mist that marked each gasp and cough. His nostrils burned from the acidic tang of the sludge. He caught sight of greasy black mucus streaking the blood and tightened his lips. Having immersed his hands in innumerable body cavities--of the living and the dead--few things the human body could do or produce repulsed him. But this... He found himself at once steeling his stomach against the urge to expel his lunch and narrowing his attention to the mechanics of saving this man's life.

Read first chapter here.

All Quite on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

"This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped the shells, were destroyed by the war."

And so opens Erich Maria Remarque's superb war novel. Based in the early twentieth century, during the first World War, Remarque challenges us to experience war in the front, where life is lived day by day. A man you may have spoken to just a day prior may be shot down the next. Hunger constantly cripples you, for meals are few and far between. This is war.

Throughout the story, we trail Paul Bäumer and his trials and tribulations. He and his fellow classmates all volunteered for the army at the urging of their teacher, Kemerich. As good friends tend to do, they stuck together as much as they could. Leer, Kropp, Müller, and Paul together at the front fighting a battle for which the purpose is unknown and for which they left school to join. Their other friends at the front are Tjaden, Detering, Katzinsky, and Haie. How many will be left by the time peace comes?

Remarque reveals in this book the subtle details of war. His masterful ability to bend the English language to his will allows the reader to feel almost as if he were actually there. While nothing can truly give you the feeling of battle, Remarque gets very close.

Each battle tears at Pauls ability to continue. Each death gives him more reason to quit. Each shot attacks his morality until finally he must confront it in the form of a French soldier, the enemy.

They ask themselves "why?", but they get no answer. World War I German soldiers' lives were hinged in this war, but they didn't know why they fought. What was the prize at the end of all the strife?

Erich Maria Remarque was a magician with words. He slowly brings you in, then he drags you forcibly into the story. Feelings of sorrow, loneliness, and fear surround you and take hold of you. You can't shy from it; it is too awesome and powerful for that.

A spectacular read that leaves you with a truly inspired feeling.


Quote From Book

    Kat looks around and whispers: "Shouldn't we just take a revolver and put an end to it?"
    The youngster will hardly survive the carrying, and at the most he will only last a few days. What he has gone through so far is nothing to what he's in for till he dies. Now he is numb and feels nothing. In an hour he will become one screaming bundle of intolerable pain. Every day that he can live will be a howling torture. And to whom does it matter whether he has them or not—
    I nod. "Yes, Kat, we ought to put him out of his misery."
    He stands still a moment. He has made up his mind. We look round—but we are no longer alone. A little group is gathering, from the shell-holes and trenches appear heads.
    We get a stretcher.
    Kat shakes his head. "Such a kid—" He repeats it. "Young innocents—"

What People Say

"Those that read All Quiet on the Western Front will see warfare stripped of its flag waving, parades, and John Wayne glory. War is death, with the glory going to the few who survive. Remarque makes a brilliant contribution to world literature with this riveting novel." - Jeffrey Leach

"It really is the greatest war novel of all time[.]" - anonymous

"This book needs to be read by everyone. As the French critic Le Monde stated: 'It should be distributed by the millions and read in every school.' As a student myself, I completely and wholeheartedly agree." - Nicole

"The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. he is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure." - The New York Times

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