6/25/18 - Today on KUCI 88.9fm - Award-winning author Rebecca Makkai joined Janeane to talk about her latest novel, The Great Believers

In her stunning new novel, award-winning author Rebecca Makkai weaves together 1980s Chicago with contemporary Paris, to tell a story of survivors who were forever affected by the AIDS crisis. THE GREAT BELIEVERS is the first novel about the AIDS epidemic in Chicago, and Makkai, a Chicago native, digs deep into the history and heart of how AIDS affected her hometown, and turns her research into a beautifully poignant novel that feels almost too real to be fiction. With themes of governmental indifference, a broken healthcare system, and survivors’ guilt, THE GREAT BELIEVERS captures the panic and rage of the period, reminds us of those who were needlessly lost, and exposes similarities to the political and social climate in the U.S. today. Makkai’s novel is more than a beautiful work of literary fiction; it is an ever-present account of the lives of those affected by AIDS.