Before contagion, there was conjecture. A rumour, a whisper. The virus was someone else’s problem, a plague visited on British farms. And then it was here. It was ours. Ruth Gilligan’s new novel, The Butchers, is set primarily in 1996, yet the uncomfortable contemporary parallels are impossible to ignore (and, given how long publishing lead times can be, its recent publication is a chilling coincidence). In 1996 the virus was BSE – mad cow disease – which was contracted by cattle whose feed included infected brain tissue.
Read more here:: The Butchers: A parallel farm plague from the 90s offers a timely tale of contagion
