This is a good but long collection of essays relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The book focuses on various themes, but is still repetitive, likely based on the subject matter. I did enjoy reading about how other countries handled the various issues stemming from the pandemic. I think I will appreciate this book more in a few years with a bit more distance from recent events.

The Long Year was almost as long as this pandemic has been, and I can’t believe I finished it. It’s a good collection of essays but it was still quite exhausting to go through all the same topics we’ve all talked about in 2020 over and over… But I guess it’s necessary to talk and point out the issues around the world, how it made inequalities and exploration all much more terrible and clear to people, and the ways we can move on from this.

The book is divided in 9 parts: diagnosing the crises, essential work, policing and protest, viral biopolitics, pandemic lives, private crises in public spaces, the failure of the state, alternative futures, further reading (“pandemic syllabus”).

Since it covers a whole bunch of different themes (even if all connected to the covid-19 pandemic), by a bunch of different authors, it has mixed quality, with some essays being much better than others, but overall they were interesting. There’s a Lot of chapters centered around life in the United States, but in my opinion the best ones were those focused in other countries, since they gave a whole new depth to the political, economic and social situations in different places; especially after all this isolation, I think it’s more important than ever to really connect with people from around the globe to find support and ways of improving life, until there’s a way to make structural changes where needed.

It’s not all depressing, however, despite the heavy topics that naturally come with the topic of the book; there’s enough chapters about the ways communities are helping each other and the possibilities for the future. Not only that, but the book does end with recommendations for further reading in different areas, which I guess can be enough motivation for people to learn more and find hope, somehow. Highly recommended to anyone with free time and enough interest to learn more about how 2020 was for people everywhere, in different situations, yet all affected by the same virus.