On January 25, 2020, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang began publishing an online diary to help herself and others understand what was happening in Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. Deeply personal and informative, her posts reveal in real-time the widespread impact of the virus and the government’s mandatory quarantine on the city’s residents. Each day, she gives voice to the fears, frustrations, anger, and hope of millions of ordinary Chinese. But the government temporarily shuts down her blog and deletes many of her published posts. Wuhan Diary captures the challenges of daily life and the changing moods and emotions of being quarantined without reliable information. As Fang Fang documents the beginning of the global health crisis in real time, she illuminates how many of the countries dealing with the novel coronavirus pandemic have repeated similar patterns and mistakes. This is a remarkable record of our times and a unique look at life in confinement in an authoritarian nation.