28: Stories of Aids in Africa by Stephanie Nolen

From the Publisher

For the past six years, Stephanie Nolen has traced AIDS across Africa, and 28 is the result: an unprecedented, uniquely human portrait of the continent in crisis. Through riveting, anecdotal stories, she brings to life men, women, and children involved in every AIDS arena, making them familiar. And she explores the effects of an epidemic that well exceeds the Black Plague in scope, and the reasons why we must care about what happens.

In every instance, Nolen has borne witness to the stories she relates, whether riding with truck driver Mohammed Ali on a journey across Kenya; following Tigist Haile Michael, a smart, shy fourteen-year-old Ethiopian orphan fending for herself and her baby brother on the slum streets of Addis Ababa; chronicling the efforts of Alice Kadzanja, an HIV-positive nurse in Malawi; or interviewing Nelson Mandela’s family about coming to terms with his own son’s death from AIDS. 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.

Imagine the entire population of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles combined infected with HIV, and its magnitude in Africa is clear. Writing with power and simplicity, Stephanie Nolen makes us listen, allows us to understand, and inspires us to care. Timely and transformative, 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa is essential reading for anyone concerned about the fate of humankind. Click here to learn more about Stephanie Nolen and her book, 28:Stories of AIDS in Africa. Click here to listen to an interview with author Stephanie Nolen, as she talks about some of the people she has met covering AIDS in Africa.

Publishers Weekly

According to UNAIDS, the number of HIV-infected people in Africa is 28 million. But Nolen, veteran Toronto Globe & MailAfrica bureau chief, doesn't believe it: after nine years of reporting on the epidemic, she thinks that number is conservative. Here she offers 28 searing portraits of Africans affected by the deadly virus. Scattered across the continent from the slums of Lagos, Nigeria, to the bush in southern Zambia, these Africans present a mosaic of a continent in crisis and a collective cry for help. She examines the role of soldiers, a "key vector" for AIDS, through the tale of Andualam Ayalew, a commando who was kicked out of the Ethiopian army after testing positive for HIV. He learned of AIDS prevention at a clinic and, risking arrest, returned to his unit to teach his former comrades and other soldiers about using condoms. Agnes Munyiva, a prostitute for 30 years, who has had contact with thousands of men in a slum outside Nairobi, Kenya, does not have HIV. Her natural immunity has brought doctors and researchers from as far away as Canada to study her.With a seasoned journalist's finesse, Nolen effortlessly weaves technical information—health statistics, disease data, NGO reports—into these deeply intimate glimpses of people often overlooked in the flood of contemporary media. Nolen's book packs a real emotional wallop. Photos, map. (June)

Janet A. Crum - Library Journal

Despite attempts by aid groups and local and Western governments, the AIDS epidemic in eastern and southern Africa rages on. These distinctive but complementary books aim to explain why AIDS in Africa has proved to be such an intractable problem. Epstein, a molecular biologist who has worked as a researcher, writer, and consultant on AIDS in Africa, explores the nature and underlying causes of the epidemic there. She analyzes why AIDS is so prevalent in Africa, focusing on the political and economic changes that ignited the epidemic as well as the social and sexual customs that fuel it. To Epstein's mind, there is plenty of blame to go around, e.g., concurrent sexual relationships, lack of women's rights, and failed political leadership. She also turns a critical eye to various attempts to slow the epidemic, contrasting the success of early public education campaigns in Uganda with other, less successful attempts. She concludes that the most promising efforts are locally developed projects that address risky behaviors openly and pragmatically, in ways that reflect local cultures and foster a spirit of mutual support and communication.

While Epstein focuses on the social, political, economic, and sexual elements, Nolen (Africa bureau chief, Toronto's Globe and Mail; Promised the Moon) gives the epidemic a human face-more precisely, 28 human faces, one for each million Africans estimated to be infected with HIV. Ill healthcare workers and activists are portrayed along with ordinary Africans whose lives have been forever changed by AIDS. Nolen tells their stories simply and elegantly, blending their personal experiences with relevant background information about the epidemic.Never sentimental, she lets the people and their experiences speak for themselves. The result is both an informative and a powerful read, which will help Western readers connect personally with a crisis that too often seems remote. Though these books cover similar ground, each makes a unique, valuable contribution to the literature on this important topic. Both are highly recommended for all collections.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Reading Group Guide
• Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Reading Group Guide

1. Compare the various stories in 28. Which affected or interested you most deeply, and why?

2. What did you learn from reading 28? Did this book surprise you? How?

3. Has the West failed to act sufficiently to reduce the impact of AIDS in Africa? Why do you think this is?

4. Why do you think Stephanie Nolen chose to tell the story of AIDS in Africa through twenty-eight people’s stories, rather than (for example) a journalistic narrative?

5. As well as tracing the interactions of the AIDS pandemic with war, the book suggests that poverty and cultural factors–such as the status of women–have made it worse. How does it make this case? Do you agree?

6. Choose one of the issues raised by the book–that wealthy people in Africa are more at risk of AIDS than poor people, or that the African pandemic has been ignored because mostly black, poor people are infected–for debate.

7. If you could add a chapter to 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa what would it be?

8. Based on recent news stories, how do you see the AIDS pandemic developing in the next ten years?

9. Will you take any action to help AIDS charities or others as a result of reading this book?

10. Would you recommend 28 to other readers? Why, or why not?

Read an Excerpt