Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors

‘One of the most liberating books of our time' Newsweek When diagnosed with breast cancer Susan Sontag discovered the extent to which we have developed a mythology to cope with disease, which can often distort the truth about illness and isolate the patient. In Illness as Metaphor she strips away the myths and presents the true significance of disease as it has affected cultures throughout the centuries. AIDS and Its Metaphors extends her critique to examine the metaphors surrounding AIDS and to expose the truth, free of guilt, shame and fear. ‘Whatever Sontag writes is passionate … hers is the satirist’s pity for our ignorance and folly’ Jonathan Keates, Observer ‘An exemplary demonstration of the power of the intellect in the face of the lethal metaphors of fear’ Michael Ignatieff, New Republic