Quick Off the Mark on SARS

It may not still be a source of international anxiety by the time the book comes out next spring (we obviously hope it's not), but Harper's Mark Bryant has rushed ahead to sign the first major study offered on the SARS epidemic, which has the world rattled. The author is Karl Taro Greenfield, editor of Time Asia, and his staff has been following the epidemic since its beginning in China earlier this year. Greenfield's book will deal not only with the progress of the virus but with the search for a possible vaccine and ways in which health authorities need to prepare for such eventualities. Bryant bought world rights from agent Gail Ross.