First published 2011
Chanda keeps secrets like other sixteen-year-olds, but hers could destroy her world. Death spreads through her community while neighbors whisper and look away. No one will name the cause, but Chanda understands the truth. AIDS kills the people she loves. Fear grips everyone around her. They refuse to speak openly about the disease ravaging their lives. Chanda must decide whether to break the silence that protects her family's reputation but enables the epidemic's spread. Her choice will determine not only her own future but the fate of those she cares about most. In a place where speaking truth means risking everything, one girl faces the weight of knowledge that could save lives or shatter her world.
Genres: contemporary, 21st-century, africa
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: silence-and-secrets, social-justice
Setting: Africa
Period: 21st Century
208 pages · Paperback · Chicken House
Content warnings: death