World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006) by Max Brooks is a gripping oral history-style novel that chronicles a global zombie apocalypse through firsthand survivor accounts. Structured as a series of interviews conducted by a UN investigator a decade after the “Zombie War,” the book spans continents and cultures, offering a mosaic of human resilience, folly, and adaptation in the face of an undead plague.
Brooks (son of Mel Brooks) blends meticulous worldbuilding with biting social commentary, exploring how different nations respond to the crisis—from Israel’s early quarantine (“The Tenth Man Doctrine”) to Russia’s brutal “Redeker Plan” sacrifices. Each vignette—a submarine crew’s mutiny, a blind Japanese gardener’s survival, a feral child’s rehabilitation—reveals the war’s psychological and geopolitical scars.
More than a horror novel, World War Z is a smart, speculative critique of government incompetence, media misinformation, and societal collapse, with eerie parallels to real pandemics. The 2013 film adaptation (starring Brad Pitt) diverges significantly, focusing on action over the book’s documentary depth.
