Nominated
for the National Book Critics Circle Award
Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the
town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from the
anxieties of modern American life. But on August 11, 1985,
the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, and,
before long, a crisis that had once seemed an "urban
problem" had arrived in the town to stay. Working
in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor
specializing in infectious diseases. Dr. Verghese became
by necessity the local AIDS expert, soon besieged by a
shocking number of male and female patients whose stories
came to occupy his mind, and even to take over his life
Out of his experience comes a startling but ultimately
uplifting portrait of the American heartland as it confronts
-- and surmounts -- its deepest prejudices and fears.
