Abstract
Corpus of literature is replete with works that feature pandemics as central themes. As a response to diseases outbreaks, fiction writers portray the human condition and the shifts in human behaviour at these crucial junctures of human history. Plot structure and characterization accounts for the void -both within and without-: prevailing chaos, crumbling social structures, undermining of religious values, and Government's apathy. Based on such themes, this paper examines, from Deterministic and Existentialistic perspectives, three representative fictions written in the 21st century: Reina James's This Time of Dying (2006) on the deadly influenza of 1918, Amir Taj Elsir's Ebola '76 (2012) on the outbreak of Ebola in 1976, and Karen Maitland's The Plague Charmer (2016) on the plague of 1361. The findings include: (a) the novels predict the contemporary society with their resonance of apocalyptic images and preventive measures, (b) they manifest ontological shifts as the orthodox worldviews are jolted, and (c) fictional and personal narratives are not less important than historical records on health in quest for existence.