5 books to read about HIV/AIDS

Never Dry Your Tears Without Gloves, by Jonas Gardell

Sweden, early 1980s, young Rasmus, just eighteen years old, leaves his countryside to settle in Stockholm. His family doesn’t know it yet, he is homosexual and relies on the community of the capital to experience his sexuality in the open.

At the same time there is Benjamin, a Jehovah’s Witness, who goes door to door on the streets of Stockholm every day. He accidentally falls in love with Paul, a tall and polite crazy woman who invites him to Christmas Eve, surrounded by gay friends. Rasmus is also there. Between them immediately, the obvious. But little by little the group of friends is struck by an illness that leaves no one behind.

Extremely well documented, this epic novel that follows the magnificent story of the group of Swedish friends provides us with precise information on the first years of the epidemic, amidst anguish, lack of information, rejection and solidarity.

Act-up, a story, by Didier Lestrade

Brought to you by journalist, activist and co-founder of Act-Up Paris Didier Lestrade, this testimonial essay takes us into the AIDS years in Paris, told by an important witness.

Journalist involved in issues related to AIDS and co-founder of the LGBT media Têtu, Lestrade recounts ten years of struggle within the association to give life to an offensive political discourse on the fight against AIDS, in front of public authorities and a society at best indifferent, at worst hostile. Instructive and necessary to understand the organization of the emergency and the survival of activists.

To the Friend Who Didn’t Save My Life, by Hervé Guibert

Cult writer of the 90s, much of the work of the author and photographer Hervé Guibert is crossed by the issue of AIDS. If we could even mention The compassionate protocol AND The man with the red hatit definitely is To the friend who didn’t save my life which made Guibert known to the general public.

Autobiographical novel, the narrator describes the death of his friend Muzil, actually Michel Foucault, and the discovery of his HIV positivity. Among the changed names we also meet some personalities such as Isabelle Adjani or the sociologist and companion of Foucault Daniel Defert.

Vivid testimony to the impact of the disease on an entire environment, the novel can be read in one sitting.

Ninety-five, by Philippe Joanny

Published in early 2023, this third novel by author Philippe Joanny traces with a mad pen a year within a group of friends and lovers during the AIDS era.

In 1995 no cure has yet proven its effectiveness, the pandemic is wreaking havoc, the time is no longer that of the discovery of the disease, but of the helpless realization that it will spare no one. A real massacre, the year 95 was one of the worst in terms of AIDS-related deaths. As one of the group’s friends suddenly dies, the novel immerses us for a week, day by day, in the life of the group, before the funeral.

Dotted with interviews with friends recorded at the time, the book also pays a vibrant homage to the Marais, a historic neighborhood of the gay community, flamboyant and creator of friendships for survival.

What AIDS Did to Me, Art and Activism at the End of the 20th Century, by Elisabeth Lebovici

With this anthological essay, art critic and journalist Elisabeth Lebovici reveals a fine and detailed analysis of several works of art and lives of artists affected by AIDS. AND

n articulating how artists have addressed the issue of AIDS and political activism, the essay pays a vibrant tribute to many of the deceased, recently celebrated in the Exposé.e exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo.