World War Z

World War Z

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a 2006 post-apocalyptic horror novel by Max Brooks. It is a follow-up to his 2003 book, The Zombie Survival Guide. Rather than a grand overview or narrative, World War Z is a collection of individual accounts in the form of first-person anecdotes. Brooks plays the role of an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission, who published the report a decade after the ten-year Zombie War. The United Nations left much of its research out of the official report, choosing to focus on facts and figures from the war rather than the individual stories that form the bulk of Brooks' novel. The interviews chart a decade-long war against zombies from the view point of many different people of various nationalities. The personal accounts also describe the religious, geo-political, and environmental changes as a result of the Zombie War.

Similar in style to Warday by Whitley Strieber, World War Z was inspired by The Good War, an oral history of World War II by Studs Terkel; and by the zombie films of director George A. Romero. Brooks used World War Z to comment on social issues like government ineptitude and American isolationism, while also examining themes of survivalism and uncertainty. Critics have praised the novel for reinventing the zombie genre; the audiobook version, performed by a full cast including Alan Alda, Mark Hamill and John Turturro, won an Audie Award in 2007. A film based upon the book is in production, and is set for a June 2013 release.