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How to Survive a Plague

The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS

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How to Survive a Plague

By: David France
Narrated by: Rory O'Malley
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About this listen

 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 20th Century Gay Studies History & Commentary Physical Illness & Disease United States Health care Chronic fatigue syndrome

Critic Reviews

Important and powerfully written . . . Instead of diluting the emotional force of his narrative, France’s personal perspective on the story amplifies it, particularly because his meticulously chronicled version of events is never clouded by sentimentality or petty score-settling . . . How to Survive a Plague stands on its own as a more richly nuanced telling of a chain of events that forever changed medicine . . . Inspiring, uplifting and necessary reading. (Steve Silberman author of Neurotribes)
A remarkable book about a remarkable achievement: how an unlikely alliance of US activists, patients, doctors and scientists tamed one of the greatest threats to public health in the past 100 years, saving millions of lives. (Peter Tatchell)
How to Survive a Plague is epoch-making: the whole social and scientific history of AIDS, brilliantly told. Informative, entertaining, suspenseful, moving, and personal. (Edmund White)
Heroic and heartbreaking and magnificent history throughout, How to Survive a Plague is one of the great tales of our time: the story of incredibly brave and determined men and women who defied government, the pharmaceutical industry, vicious homophobia, and the death sentence of AIDS to overwhelm an awful scourge. (Carl Bernstein)
As one generation grows up with the misconception that AIDS is nothing more than a manageable illness, another grows old with the fear that the epidemic's early days will disappear into the fog of history. How to Survive a Plague is the book for both generations. France has pulled off the seemingly impossible here, invoking the terror and confusion of those dark times while simultaneously providing a clear-eyed timeline of the epidemic's emergence and the disparate, often dissonant forces that emerged to fight it. (Dale Peck)
Riveting account of the effort by citizens and scientists alike to combat AIDS in its devastating early years. France moved to New York fresh out of college, in 1981, and he focusses on the city, where nearly half of the gay population was infected with H.I.V. before the virus was discovered. Threaded with poignant personal recollection, his history is formidable in scope and profoundly humane. It’s also a study in the power of protest and civil disobedience, bound to be useful in the days ahead (Alexandra Schwartz)

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Heartbreaking and inspiring account of AIDS crisis

I bought this book because I really liked the documentary by the same name and was not disappointed. I was unsure if the book was worth my time as I had already watched the documentary several times. I am glad I decided to give it a go. It goes much more in-depth and has more time to cover more ground.

I did have to take several breaks while listening to this book because of the emotional weight of the story. I definitely cried a lot throughout. From the frustrating accounts of political incompetence, maddening bureaucratic time wasting and heartbreaking tales of homophobia. The story of discrimination and lack of compassion for gay people during the AIDS crisis is truly astounding and devastating. The fighting spirit of the LGBT community and AIDS activists is inspiring and yet horrifying that such a drawn out and consistent fight was even needed in the first place.

It's an important piece of history and absolutely worth the read.

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