How to Survive a Plague

The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS

By: David France

Narrated by: Rory O'Malley

Length: 24 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of The Green Carnation Prize for LGBTQ literature
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT nonfiction
Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2017

How to Survive a Plague by David France is the riveting, powerful and profoundly moving story of the AIDS epidemic and the grass-roots movement of activists, many of them facing their own life-or-death struggles, who grabbed the reins of scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Around the globe, the 15.8 million people taking anti-AIDS drugs today are alive thanks to their efforts.

Not since the publication of Randy Shilts's now classic And the Band Played On in 1987 has a book sought to measure the AIDS plague in such brutally human, intimate, and soaring terms.

Weaving together the stories of dozens of individuals, this is an insider's account of a pivotal moment in our history and one that changed the way that medical science is practised worldwide.

©2017 David France (P)2017 Macmillan Digital Audio

Critic reviews

"This superbly written chronicle will stand as a towering work in its field." ( Sunday Times)

"Inspiring, uplifting and necessary reading." (Steve Silberman, author of Neurotribes, Financial Times)