David France’s book was praised by judges for its ‘incredibly visceral’ history, drawing on the author’s own experiences as a young gay man in the 80s
David France’s account of the Aids epidemic, How to Survive a Plague, has won the Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction, as chair of judges Sir Peter Bazalgette hailed the importance of serious non-fiction as an “antidote to 140-character culture”.
Opening with a quote from Paul Monet, “Grief is a sword, or it is nothing”, France’s book chronicles how the activist community fought to develop the drugs that would turn HIV into a largely treatable condition. It covers the years between 1981 and 1996, when, as France puts it, “there was no effective medical treatment for an HIV infection and death was almost certain”, and how with the founding of Act Up (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) and TAG (Treatment Action Group), activists paved the way towards a medical breakthrough.
Related: How to Survive a Plague by David France – review
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