Children of Lazarus

By: Les K. Wright

Children of Lazarus focuses on the vast, sprawling, still largely unchartered territory of AIDS survivorship. With probing honesty, intelligence and sensitivity, and from vantage points rarely considered with such particularity and nuance, this singular collection canvasses the often tragic yet simultaneously luminous stories of those living with HIV/AIDS. It surveys those with HIV/AIDS themselves, including Wright, their caregivers (those who are poz and those who are not), with an unblinking eye on their experience of social, political and legal bias and indifference, and especially of health care insufficiency and malfeasance.

Children of Lazarus is a saga of humanity and courage, of surviving and sometimes thriving, though often not, for which the Biblical metaphor of Lazarus could not be more apt. At the same time, it's a singular guide and handbook for understanding and navigating one of history's greatest pandemics. A must for historians, clinicians, sociologists, psychologists, health care providers, writers, readers, and everyone else, it will honor any bookshelf, library or backpack with the heart and humanity to bear it.