The Fight of Our Lives- AIDS in America.jpg
The Fight of Our Lives- AIDS in America.jpg

The Fight of Our Lives by David Levithan

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Hardcover:

A Kirkus Star pick: AIDS in America, told for readers who’ve only known it as treatable.

Written for a generation growing up in an era where HIV is manageable, this book reconstructs the terror of the 1980s and 1990s, when an AIDS diagnosis meant facing fear, stigma, and prejudice on top of a deadly disease.

David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels trace the crisis through key figures and moments — Ryan White, ACT UP, Larry Kramer, Pedro Zamora, the Names Quilt — showing how grassroots activism filled the gaps left by a slow-moving government and medical establishment.

Poems, essays, and firsthand interviews are woven throughout the history, alongside the science and statistics, keeping the human cost of the epidemic at the center of the story.

The Fight of Our Lives makes the case that this history isn’t settled — people are still dying of HIV/AIDS today because they can’t access care, and the fight that began decades ago isn’t over.

A Kirkus Star pick: AIDS in America, told for readers who’ve only known it as treatable.

Written for a generation growing up in an era where HIV is manageable, this book reconstructs the terror of the 1980s and 1990s, when an AIDS diagnosis meant facing fear, stigma, and prejudice on top of a deadly disease.

David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels trace the crisis through key figures and moments — Ryan White, ACT UP, Larry Kramer, Pedro Zamora, the Names Quilt — showing how grassroots activism filled the gaps left by a slow-moving government and medical establishment.

Poems, essays, and firsthand interviews are woven throughout the history, alongside the science and statistics, keeping the human cost of the epidemic at the center of the story.

The Fight of Our Lives makes the case that this history isn’t settled — people are still dying of HIV/AIDS today because they can’t access care, and the fight that began decades ago isn’t over.

  • Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House)

    Title: The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America

    Author: David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels

    On Sale Date: April 21, 2026

    ISBN 13: 9780593710920

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $24.99

    Page Count: 480

  • David Levithan is the author of several books for young adults, including Lambda Literary Award winner Two Boys Kissing, Every Day, and Boy Meets Boy. In 2016 he received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his lasting contribution to young adult literature. Gabriel Duckels holds a PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge.

  • Critics are calling it resonant, compassionate, urgent:

    • “AIDS in America: a story of injustice and resistance.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

    • “Delivers an emotionally resonant portrait of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S.” —Publishers Weekly

    • Explores the epidemic through primary source interviews, poetry, and firsthand testimony.

    • A collaboration between award-winning YA author David Levithan and scholar Gabriel Duckels.

This book is for you if

  • You want a clear, well-researched history of the AIDS crisis written for readers who didn’t live through it.

  • You’re interested in the history of LGBTQ+ activism and grassroots organizing.

  • You appreciate nonfiction that blends hard history with poetry, essays, and firsthand testimony.

  • You want to understand how the AIDS crisis still shapes public health today.

  • You’re drawn to the work of David Levithan and want to see him take on nonfiction.

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