About the Author

Stephanie Nolen is the Africa Bureau Chief for the Globe and Mail, and one of only three journalists in the world dedicated to the AIDS story. She has reported from more than 40 countries around the world, and has won Canada's National Newspaper Award for International Reporting two years in a row. She was the recipient of the 2003, 2004, and 2006 Amnesty International Award for Human Rights Reporting, for reports from war zones in Uganda and Sudan, and also won the Markwell Award of the International Society of Political Psychology. She is the author of Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race and Shakespeare's Face.

Reviews

Nolen's stories give a human face to HIV/AIDS in Africa - and enrich our understanding of the disease in intangible ways.
G. Pascal Zachary, San Francisco Chronicle

So rich a portrait of humanity that it would stand up without AIDS as its buttress....this is a book about human life and human nature. 28 is really not about numbers at all.
Melissa Fay Greene, Toronto Globe and Mail

From teachers to truckers, sex workers to orphans, Stephanie Nolen's devastatingly moving 28 puts heroic human faces on the catastrophic toll AIDS is taking on the African people.
;Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair-HOT TYPE

Magnificent, inspiring, informative. Nolen opens the essential door to the brave, suffering, human reality of the African AIDS crisis.
John le Carrè

This is a formidable book of record . . . from the tiny virus, via 28 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 W.M.D.
Bono

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.--Janet A. Crum, Oregon Health & Science Univ. Lib., Portland Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

From teachers to truckers, sex workers to orphans, Stephanie Nolen's devastatingly moving 28 puts heroic human faces on the catastrophic toll AIDS is taking on the African people.
;Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair-HOT TYPE
Magnificent, inspiring, informative. Nolen opens the essential door to the brave, suffering, human reality of the African AIDS crisis.
John le Carre
This is a formidable book of record . . . from the tiny virus, via 28 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 W.M.D.
Bono