Through These Veins

Praise for Through These Veins

With a cinematic sweep, "Through These Veins" has a colorful, broad, beautiful feel to it with characters that come so alive I can see them.
- Lisa Napoli, author of "Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth"

Enthralling. "Through These Veins" doesn't just call plants by their names; it sings their praises. There is no better case for conservation than this vivid account of how our wellbeing is so intertwined with the secret lives of plants.
- Calestous Juma, Director, of Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and former Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity

A real pleasure. Very dramatic with a wide range of vivid descriptions and an important reminder of the relationship between science and nature.
- Warren Olney, Host of Public Radio International’s To The Point

Summary
In the coffee-growing highlands of Ethiopia, an Italian scientist on a plant collecting expedition discovers a local medicine man dispensing an apparent cure for AIDS. As the medicine man’s teenage daughter reveals the plants behind the cure, their lives become irrevocably intertwined. Through These Veins weaves together the dramatically different worlds of traditional healing, U.S. government funded AIDS research, and the pharmaceutical industry in an intensely personal, fast-paced tale of scientific intrigue and love, with both devastating and hopeful effect.

All profits from the sale of this book will be distributed to the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation in Ethiopia.

Anne Marie Ruff has reported on AIDS research, drug development, biodiversity conservation, and agriculture from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. Her work has been broadcast by National Public Radio, Public Radio International, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and PBS TV. Her articles have appeared in Time, Christian Science Monitor, and Saveur among other publications. A Minnesota native, Ms. Ruff lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two sons. Through These Veins is her first novel.