****WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE ****
Harper's Bazaar Best Book of the Year
Boston Globe Best Book of the Year
Ms. Magazine Best Feminist Book of the Year
Words Without Borders: Best Translated Book of the Year
Drawing on real accounts of the Ebola outbreak that devastated West
Africa, this poignant, timely fable reflects on both the strength and
the fragility of life and humanity's place in the world.
Two boys venture from their village to hunt in a nearby forest, where
they shoot down bats with glee, and cook their prey over an open fire.
Within a month, they are dead, bodies ravaged by an insidious disease
that neither the local healer's potions nor the medical team's
treatments could cure. Compounding the family's grief, experts warn
against touching the sick. But this caution comes too late: the virus
spreads rapidly, and the boys' father is barely able to send his eldest
daughter away for a chance at survival.
In a series of moving snapshots, Véronique Tadjo illustrates the
terrible extent of the Ebola epidemic, through the eyes of those
affected in myriad ways: the doctor who tirelessly treats patients day
after day in a sweltering tent, protected from the virus only by a
plastic suit; the student who volunteers to work as a gravedigger while
universities are closed, helping the teams overwhelmed by the sheer
number of bodies; the grandmother who agrees to take in an orphaned boy
cast out of his village for fear of infection. And watching over them
all is the ancient and wise Baobab tree, mourning the dire state of the
earth yet providing a sense of hope for the future.
Acutely relevant to our times in light of the coronavirus pandemic, In
the Company of Men explores critical questions about how we cope with a
global crisis and how we can combat fear and prejudice.
