28 Stories of AIDS in Africa

"This is a formidable book of record...from the tiny virus, via twenty-eight individual human stories, to an entire continent. The stories will tear you apart before putting you back together, fully armed and ready to go to war with a virus more dangerous than any WMD."Bono "Magnificent, inspiring, informative. Nolen opens the essential door to the brave, suffering, human reality of the African AIDS crisis."John le Carre For the past six years, Stephanie Nolen has traced AIDS across Africa, and28is the result: an unprecedented, uniquely human portrait of the continent in crisis. Through riveting, anecdotal stories, she bears witness and brings to life men, women, and children involved in every AIDS arena, exploring the effects of an epidemic that well exceeds the Black Plague in scope, and the reasons why we must care about what happens. Nolen's stories reveal how the disease works and spreads; how it is inextricably tied to conflict and famine and to the diverse cultures it has ravaged; how treatment works; and how people who can't get treatment fight to stay alive with courage and dignity against huge odds. Writing with power and simplicity, she makes us listen, allows us to understand, and inspires us to care

Stephanie Nolen is the award-winning Africa bureau chief for Toronto’s Globe and Mail, and one of only three journalists in the world wholly dedicated to the AIDS story. She has reported from more than forty countries around the world, was the recipient of the 2003, 2004, and 2006 Amnesty International Award for Human Rights Reporting, and has been acclaimed for her “creative brilliance, humanitarian compassion, personal courage, and relentless pursuit of truth.” She is the author of Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race and Shakespeare’s Face. She lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.