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Max Brooks' 'World War Z: An oral history of the zombie war' is set a decade after the events about which he wrote in his first of book of the series 'The Zombie Survival Guide'. While the previous book provided a clinical and detached practical guide to protecting oneself from a zombie invasion, Brooks' new novel is a more emotive and much finer piece.

While you may find bookshops shelving 'World War Z' under horror, comedy (apparently because his father is famed funny man Mel Brooks), or science fiction, this is not a book that can be easily pigeon holed. Although apparently about zombies it is a far cry from horror films that look to shock you with gore or make you laugh with slapstick violence. This is instead a book about humanity and it's nature, how people react under crises and a critical look at modern society.

Comprised of a series of interviews with prominent figures of 'World War Z' from across the globe, the book serves as both an overview of a global disaster and simultaneously an in depth and ultimately personal examination of characters thrust into life threatening and horrifying circumstances.

The events of 'World War Z' are portrayed in chapters that sum up periods of the war, from the confusion and conjuncture of the initial outbreaks, to the world's governments hesitant and doomed attempts to stop the growing tide of zombies and save some of their people, to the realisation of defeat and the attempts to claw back some sliver of civilisation, to retaking of the world and the attempts to rebuild what has been lost.

At the height of the war Brooks' characters tell of the millions strong swarms of the living dead mindlessly wandering the land, abandoned and infested cities, seas whose beds are writhing with rotting zombies, and fragile pockets of humanity struggling to survive. It is the literary equivalent of watching a disaster film of epic proportions and is engaging enough to leave you feeling truly disturbed by what you read.

This is because as Brooks' relates these fictional historical events through the eyes of those who survived them the reader never has the dry feeling of reading a history book; instead the events are retold in vivid and disturbing detail, bringing the reader right into the action. It is these characters telling their stories who are the true stars of the book, not the zombies. Each character is vividly realised, extremely realistic, and utterly believable. Not only do we share in their memories of the war, but also their

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