A review by mdabernig
28: Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen

5.0

Anyway, the book (other than the omission of the pages) was truly amazing. I was recommended it by a friend and I have an interest in that sort of thing so I bought it and I honestly didn't think I was as ignorant about the subject as I turned out to be. I always pride myself on being kinda savvy and stuff about world issues but that was completely thrown out the water. It's a great book - and there's stories from everyone from all walks of life in it. A prostitute old enough to be a grandmother who is immune to the disease, a little boy who got held back in school because he was too sick to pass his final exams, the girl who had lost her parents and was looking after her little brother who was dependant on the people of the village to look after them, lorry drivers, educators, soldiers, wives, husbands, aid workers, doctors, scientist - everyone. I don't know, I think because it delivered it in such a way that in the small snapshot you got you learned a little more. The misconception that the soldier had that as long as the prostitute was fat then he didn't have to worry about catching anything, the excuse of some official that there was no point giving African's drugs because they 'told the time using the sun' and wouldn't be able to adhere to the timing methods necessary to follow the guidelines because of it, the artist who always wore a condom but got infected because he went to help a neighbour after a break-in and he got injured and his blood crossed with an infected supply...

It's just a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone. It's an eye-opener and although the stories are about something tragic and the numbers and some of the things that happen are tragic, it isn't a book that is solely about that, which sounds weird but it's true.