April Fool's Day: A Modern Tragedy [Paperback] Courtenay Bryce

Bryce Courtenay's most personal book is a father's account of his son Damon — brilliant, witty, determined — who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion as a hemophiliac child in 1984. What follows isn't a tearjerker written to make you sad; it's a celebration of a life lived with ferocious intelligence and humour in the face of the unthinkable. Courtenay writes with raw honesty about watching his son navigate university, relationships, and a writing career while the clock ticked down. This is the AIDS crisis rendered intimate and specific: one family's fight against stigma, fear, and a medical establishment that didn't yet know how to help. It's devastating, yes, but also surprisingly funny and defiantly alive. For readers who want memoirs that refuse to sanitize grief or loss — and who believe the best tribute to a life is telling the truth about it.