Sizwe's Test: A Young Man's Journey Through Africa's AIDS Epidemic

*Acclaimed South Africa journalist Jonny Steinberg journeys into the center of the AIDS crisis in his home country (where more than 1 in 8 people are HIV-positive) to find out why, even when they are within walking distance of treatment, people are staying home and dying.
          
Like Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains—but with more focus on the patients—SIZWE’S TEST shows an absorbing perspective of the social and medical life surrounding AIDS. Steinberg tells the story of two South Africans: Sizwe, a young, successful man from a poor village who refuses to be tested for AIDS, and Dr. Hermann Reuter, a Western doctor on a mission to provide decent treatment for all. Through each man’s story, Steinberg reveals the perspectives of those who are infected, those who are trying to help, and those who refuse the help provided.
In the heart of the story is a deeply dividing culture clash. From under-trained nurses and implacable bureaucracies to tales of HIV-bearing demons who have sex with villagers in the middle of the night, Steinberg reveals a powerful true story of superstition, stigma, and the cultural gap at the center of Africa’s AIDS crisis.

-Published by Simon & Schuster