7 Books to Read on World AIDS Day

, by award-winning author Nicola Griffith, is a fascinatingly intense, semiautobiographical novel about a woman facing down her demons. The profoundly personal narrative reads much like a memoir, and readers can’t help but empathize with protagonist Mara Tagarelli. In the space of a single week, her wife leaves her and she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In the professional world, Mara is the head of a multimillion-dollar AIDS foundation (a career inspired by someone very close to her living with HIV) and in her personal life, she is a committed martial artist. But when her life is turned upside down overnight, Mara finds herself feeling completely lost