By Albert Camus "The Plague" is one of the most well-known books on the topic of epidemic disease — and right now, it's on the reading lists of many professors. Bill Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told The Harvard Gazette that although he hasn't had time to start the 1947 novel yet, he's read it before. "[Albert] Camus has influenced my thinking ever since my best friend introduced me to his work," he said. "This book is very vivid in conveying what it feels like to be in a city hit by an epidemic, and what it feels like to be in quarantine," Jenny Davidson, a professor at Columbia University said in an interview with book recommendations site FiveBooks.com. "It conveys how important it is to retain our humanity and our sense of connection to others in times when so much is at stake."