At the end of a steep gravel road in one of the remotest corners of Lusikisiki in the old Transkei lies the village of Ithanga. Home to a few hundred villagers, the majority of them unemployed, it is inconceivably poor. In the broader world, most would consider it entirely inconsequential. It is here that award-winning author Jonny Steinberg explores the lives of a community caught up in a battle to survive the ravages of HIV/Aids.

At the end of a steep gravel road in one of the remotest corners of Lusikisiki in the old Transkei lies the village of Ithanga. Home to a few hundred villagers, the majority of them unemployed, it is inconceivably poor. In the broader world, most would consider it entirely inconsequential. It is here that award-winning author Jonny Steinberg explores the lives of a community caught up in a battle to survive the ravages of HIV/Aids. He befriends Sizwe Magadla, a young local man who refuses to be tested for HIV despite the existence of a well-run testing and anti-retroviral programme. It is this apparent illogic that becomes the key to understanding the dynamics that thread their way through a complex and traditional rural community. In this eye-opening, compassionate, searing and beautifully written book, Steinberg seeks to understand the Aids crisis in South Africa. As he grapples to get closer to answers that remain maddeningly just out of reach, he realizes he must look within to unravel some of the enigma surrounding an epidemic that has corrupted souls as much as bodies.