Product Description

At the age of twenty-nine, Sizwe Magadla is among the most handsome, well-educated, and richest of the men in his poverty-stricken village. Dr. Hermann Reuter, a son of old South West African stock, wants to show the world that if you provide decent treatment, people will come and get it, no matter their circumstances.

Sizwe and Hermann live at the epicenter of the greatest plague of our times, the African AIDS epidemic. In South Africa alone, nearly 6 million people in a population of 46 million are HIV-positive. Already, Sizwe has watched several neighbors grow ill and die, yet he himself has pushed AIDS to the margins of his life and associates it obliquely with other people's envy, with comeuppance, and with misfortune.

When Hermann Reuter establishes an antiretroviral treatment program in Sizwe's district and Sizwe discovers that close family members have the virus, the antagonism between these two figures from very different worlds -- one afraid that people will turn their backs on medical care, the other fearful of the advent of a world in which respect for traditional ways has been lost and privacy has been obliterated -- mirrors a continent-wide battle against an epidemic that has corrupted souls as much as bodies.

A heartbreaking tale of shame and pride, sex and death, and a continent's battle with its demons, Steinberg's searing account is a tour-de-force of literary journalism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #327161 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416552697
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Award-winning South African journalist Steinberg, a gay white man, conceived this book to understand the AIDS crisis in his country and, to a limited degree, in himself: though HIV testing and treatment are readily accessible, he wondered, why did so many abstain? Steinberg journeys to the poor black village of Ithanga, where antiretrovirals (ARVs) are available, but electricity and running water are not. He examines the disease through the pseudonymous Sizwe Magadla, a 30-year-old shopkeeper who has resisted testing. Sizwe becomes Steinberg's interpreter and explains the village's traditional health-care system in which witchcraft thrives and Western medical missionaries challenge healers and herbalists. Steinberg traces Sizwe's growing awareness of the myths and realities of the three letters—one persistent belief, that whites created and deployed HIV as a means to regain power, echoes the legacy of apartheid still overshadowing the country—and his attempts to reconcile cultural beliefs with increasingly unassailable medical facts. Steinberg becomes intertwined with his subject, but balances critical distance and compassion with gleanings from his own psychological barriers to HIV testing that further deepen the concern and understanding he accords to Sizwe's story. (Feb.)
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From Booklist
Journalist Steinberg wonders how, in a rapidly evolving socioeconomic situation such as South Africa’s, it is possible to record more than a thousand new HIV infections per day. He notes that, despite the best efforts of government and the international organization Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors without Borders), one in eight South Africans has AIDS. Where, he asks, is the disconnect? Why aren’t more South Africans taking advantage of the medical resources available to them? Are there, indeed, enough resources to go around? To answer those and further questions, Steinberg embedded himself in a small village in the rural district of Lusikisiki in Eastern Cape Province and shadowed a young man, a shop owner named Sizwe. The resulting profile of him, his family, friends, and the local MSF facility is a real eye-opener. Besides a portrait of what life is like for the people negotiating this transitional period, Steinberg offers a candid glimpse into Sizwe’s private thoughts and fears, which likely mirror those of many of his countrymen. --Donna Chavez

Review
"Not since Abraham Vergese's haunting 1994 book about eastern Tennessee, My Own Country, has the AIDS epidemic been described so deeply and humanly, and from so many angles. Steinberg...is keenly attuned to the many way a community encounters illness...[and] has ended up with a big, brave, poignant look into the heart of his country."

-- Time Out New York

Customer Reviews

Should be required reading for all world leaders!
Heartwrenching account of the conflicts between modern medicine and daily life in Africa in the midst of the worlds most horrific AIDS epidemic. A stirring call for action and compassion. Should be required reading for all world leaders.

so much more
So much more than a book about AIDS. This is a nuanced, personal, revealing account of one man (Sizwe), his interlocutor (Jonny) and a doctor who figures out how best to deliver services to HIV+ people in the countryside. It examines personalities and policies with equal depth and wisdom. There are no cartoon-character bad guys, just complicated situations, ignorance, bureaucracy, and a great deal of stigma. It is gracefully and thoughtfully written, never trite, seldom judgmental, and sharp as a new blade. I, however, will be trite: "If you read only one book on AIDS in sub-saharan Africa, this is a great choice."

Brilliant
The fundamental question that Mr Steinberg wrestles with is why people may choose not to take drugs that may preempt death. His honesty, sensitivity and tenacity enable him to explore the dynamics of a rural South African community in a way that I've not encountered. And yes, the man can write.