It’s really important to understand the impact AIDS has had on society and culture. To Paradise makes AIDS one of the book’s many concerns, but The Great Believers focuses how the disease ravaged communities. Yale works for an art gallery in 1980s Chicago and witnesses his friends die one by one until Fiona, his friend’s sister, is the only person remaining in his life. Fiona’s story picks up 30 years later, when she finally grapples with the effect AIDS had on her life and relationships. This is another book that is as vivid and heartbreaking as To Paradise.