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Through These Veins
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.
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.
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First published June 20, 2011
3 people are currently reading
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About the author
Anne Marie Ruff
2 books49 followersAnne Marie Ruff has spent her whole life telling stories: as a novelist, journalist, radio broadcaster, editor, teacher, and actor. She has spent much of her adult life traveling the world, living abroad, and asking questions in search of stories worth telling.
Born in Minnesota, she attended Blake Upper School before moving to Los Angeles to study geography and environmental studies at UCLA. She worked as a journalist, based for several years in Bangkok, Thailand, and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Her work has been published/broadcast by NPR, BBC, PRI, PBS, Christian Science Monitor, Time Asia, Far Eastern Economic Review, and International Herald Tribune TV.
Anne Marie’s first novel, Through These Veins, about the development of a cure for AIDS, drew on her reporting about the environment, biodiversity, biotech, and AIDS research, in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Turkmenistan. Her second novel, Beneath the Same Heaven, examines the conflict between Islamic and western culture through the microcosm of a marriage torn apart by terrorism. The story reveals insights drawn from her own experiences of cross-cultural marriage and living in cultures with a revenge-based sense of justice.
Anne Marie works as the editor for a global law firm. She has returned to Minnesota where she lives in the big woods with her Indian born-and-raised husband and their two sons.
Born in Minnesota, she attended Blake Upper School before moving to Los Angeles to study geography and environmental studies at UCLA. She worked as a journalist, based for several years in Bangkok, Thailand, and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Her work has been published/broadcast by NPR, BBC, PRI, PBS, Christian Science Monitor, Time Asia, Far Eastern Economic Review, and International Herald Tribune TV.
Anne Marie’s first novel, Through These Veins, about the development of a cure for AIDS, drew on her reporting about the environment, biodiversity, biotech, and AIDS research, in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Turkmenistan. Her second novel, Beneath the Same Heaven, examines the conflict between Islamic and western culture through the microcosm of a marriage torn apart by terrorism. The story reveals insights drawn from her own experiences of cross-cultural marriage and living in cultures with a revenge-based sense of justice.
Anne Marie works as the editor for a global law firm. She has returned to Minnesota where she lives in the big woods with her Indian born-and-raised husband and their two sons.
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August 28, 2011This book should be a movie! It's cinematic, the action....
July 11, 2012
Through These Veins
Anne Marie Ruff takes us on an adventure in the coffee highlands of Ethiopia. The bitter taste of death, sweet almond extract of true love and intrigue are wired together in this epic story.
Ruth and Zahara are two strong women searching for truth. They want to save those they care for from the tortured death by AIDS. A cure is within their very grasp.
Stefano, the Italian scientist, is plant collecting before the forest disappears. He meets a medicine man who has found katannii leaf extract can cure AIDS.
Life replicates fiction- I understand what it is to collect plants, having been a collector of roses and rare plants. Stefano’s passion for rescuing the secrets of the forest is romantic and true. The charming Stefano streams with life blood.
The topic of a cure for AIDS is timely. Timothy Ray Brown is the first person to have had HIV totally eliminated from his body. Will some plant that is burned or cut down hold the secret to something better than a “functional cure”?
Our oldest human relatives come from Ethiopia, a now country suffering with drought, deforestation and death. With one Medical Doctor for 100000 citizens, survival rates are low. Locals hold to superstitious beliefs that spirits and supernatural forces can cause bad fortune, and illness.
Ruff stands apart from preaching to us about Pharmaceutical Companies, corrupt governments or political action. “Pepsi and Coke should start a big political campaign,” Ruth says. Ruth speaks a profound idea. Ruff’s writing flows gracefully showing the evil forces what they are.
There are passages where Ruff’s images are handsome and bitter as raw coffee, as in, “She wrapped both hands around her wine glass attempting to steady herself, to prevent herself from descending into the abyss of uncertainty.” As if the red wine, or liquid of the glass could save her fall. Ruff’s storytelling is elegant.
Ruff inspires us to conserve this beautiful earth’s biodiversity without asking or waving a flag. “Think carefully about how you can stay true to your values-”
Through these veins we are all connected. Ruff’s novel is romantic, thrilling and uplifting. Read it and be changed. Link where I compare her work to the beautiful paintings of Mulugeta Gebrekidan as the images do not post here. http://carolinegerardo.blogspot.com/2...
He is an Ethiopian painter using mixed media and oil. His work expresses the same longing to save, to stir greatness without explaining.
Anne Marie Ruff takes us on an adventure in the coffee highlands of Ethiopia. The bitter taste of death, sweet almond extract of true love and intrigue are wired together in this epic story.
Ruth and Zahara are two strong women searching for truth. They want to save those they care for from the tortured death by AIDS. A cure is within their very grasp.
Stefano, the Italian scientist, is plant collecting before the forest disappears. He meets a medicine man who has found katannii leaf extract can cure AIDS.
Life replicates fiction- I understand what it is to collect plants, having been a collector of roses and rare plants. Stefano’s passion for rescuing the secrets of the forest is romantic and true. The charming Stefano streams with life blood.
The topic of a cure for AIDS is timely. Timothy Ray Brown is the first person to have had HIV totally eliminated from his body. Will some plant that is burned or cut down hold the secret to something better than a “functional cure”?
Our oldest human relatives come from Ethiopia, a now country suffering with drought, deforestation and death. With one Medical Doctor for 100000 citizens, survival rates are low. Locals hold to superstitious beliefs that spirits and supernatural forces can cause bad fortune, and illness.
Ruff stands apart from preaching to us about Pharmaceutical Companies, corrupt governments or political action. “Pepsi and Coke should start a big political campaign,” Ruth says. Ruth speaks a profound idea. Ruff’s writing flows gracefully showing the evil forces what they are.
There are passages where Ruff’s images are handsome and bitter as raw coffee, as in, “She wrapped both hands around her wine glass attempting to steady herself, to prevent herself from descending into the abyss of uncertainty.” As if the red wine, or liquid of the glass could save her fall. Ruff’s storytelling is elegant.
Ruff inspires us to conserve this beautiful earth’s biodiversity without asking or waving a flag. “Think carefully about how you can stay true to your values-”
Through these veins we are all connected. Ruff’s novel is romantic, thrilling and uplifting. Read it and be changed. Link where I compare her work to the beautiful paintings of Mulugeta Gebrekidan as the images do not post here. http://carolinegerardo.blogspot.com/2...
He is an Ethiopian painter using mixed media and oil. His work expresses the same longing to save, to stir greatness without explaining.
January 23, 2012
Wonderfully drawn characters and beautifully written mainly from two women's points of view -- Zahara, the daughter of Ethiopia who carries the secret of the cure to AIDS in her memory and Ruth, the US govt-funded AIDS researcher who tries to will the cure through the labyrinthian NIH. The exotic locale and finely tuned details of a third world medicinal arts are alluring, but in the end it's the two women's characters who grab the reader and won't let go. Who knows how close we've truly been to an AIDS cure, but the plot Ruff has concocted here seems totally plausible, and tragic, as it seems the cure is close at hand...
December 14, 2017
The first time I started to read the book, I stopped after Nataniel was murdered. It was such a shock, I couldn't bring myself to continue. 😕
Fast forward a few years - I started it again, and finished it within a week. Timing is everything. I knew that the pharmaceutical companies can be cut throat, but it was interesting to consider the intellectual property issues regarding who owns the rights to the plants, medicinal properties of plants, etc.
Fast forward a few years - I started it again, and finished it within a week. Timing is everything. I knew that the pharmaceutical companies can be cut throat, but it was interesting to consider the intellectual property issues regarding who owns the rights to the plants, medicinal properties of plants, etc.
August 21, 2020
This is not an ownvoices book. However, I felt the author did a good job not centering the west and actually contrasting the American viewpoint of profit over well-being with other altruistic world views. Worth reading! 4 stars
December 16, 2012
"Through These Veins" asks the question about whether the medicine we rely on for some of the most harmful diseases in the world are the result of a scientific miracle or a sneaky business decision made by some suit on the basis of charts and a chance for profit. It's a very real question. I think we all want to believe that pharmaceutical companies have their heads in the right places when it comes to what medicines they come out with but those companies are just that, companies. While it would be nice if they were truly altruistic, they still need to make a profit so it's conceivable that if a drug would not turn a tidy profit, they may choose not to manufacture it or wait until the business aspect is better looking before they put it out. This book explores this topic, which was totally fascinating to me. I do wish that the book had touched on this dilemma a little bit more.
This is definitely a good book for those who like a lot of different settings. You get to see Ethiopia and Washington, DC for starters. My fellow armchair travelers will definitely enjoy this aspect. I don't get a chance to read about any African countries all that much so it was nice to read about a place like Ethiopia that was so new and different to me.
I really liked the characters in this book for the most part but Zahara was definitely my favorite. Zahara is the daughter of a medicine man in a remote village in the middle of Ethiopia's coffee highlands. She is incredibly smart and strong. Those characteristics are definitely on display as the book goes on. She goes through a lot throughout the book but she get through all of that showing so much courage.
Bottom line: A good read about miracle medicine.
This is definitely a good book for those who like a lot of different settings. You get to see Ethiopia and Washington, DC for starters. My fellow armchair travelers will definitely enjoy this aspect. I don't get a chance to read about any African countries all that much so it was nice to read about a place like Ethiopia that was so new and different to me.
I really liked the characters in this book for the most part but Zahara was definitely my favorite. Zahara is the daughter of a medicine man in a remote village in the middle of Ethiopia's coffee highlands. She is incredibly smart and strong. Those characteristics are definitely on display as the book goes on. She goes through a lot throughout the book but she get through all of that showing so much courage.
Bottom line: A good read about miracle medicine.
October 26, 2012
One of the things I've loved most since the publication of my novel is the many opportunities I've had to meet authors --- Anne Marie Ruff and I were put together for a radio program, and then we both spoke on a panel at the West Hollywood Book Fair. As she and I talked and she described her novel to me, I knew that this was a book I must read. Spanning the globe and incorporating a variety of characters, "Between These Veins" is about an Italian scientist's discovery of an Ethiopian medicine man's use of a plant that seems to be a cure for AIDS. It's difficult to describe the plot further than that, since that would require too many spoilers. But I can say that I was fascinated by the legal (not to mention ethical) complexities involving the ownership of a simple leaf and the many factors (in the western world) that go into deciding how a medicine should --- or should not --- be used. Ruff is a long-time journalist who wrote about the subjects now in her novel, and her expertise shows. Best of all, it's woven seamlessly into the story. If I have any complaint, it's that I wanted more of Zahara, the medicine man's daughter. But the book left the possibility open for a sequel, so maybe there will be more of this character in pages to come!
October 19, 2012
Through These Veins is a gorgeous globe-spanning novel that follows the lives of several characters who are involved in the discovery of a potential cure for the AIDS virus. Not a new cocktail, not a new therapy, an out-and-out eradication of the virus from the bloodstreams of those who have become infected.
The journey starts in Washington D.C. in the year 2004 with the revelation that thanks to the help of an Italian botanist named Stefano Geotti, researcher Dr. Robert Kresovich may have just stumbled upon the scientific breakthrough of a lifetime. It then quickly flashes backward to Geotti’s time spent in a small village in Ethiopia and his discovery that through trial-and-error and a keen knowledge of the local plant life, a doctor there may have come across a natural recipe for killing the disease. Intrigued, Geotti collects some samples and sends them off to Kresovich for further evaluation.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/throu...
The journey starts in Washington D.C. in the year 2004 with the revelation that thanks to the help of an Italian botanist named Stefano Geotti, researcher Dr. Robert Kresovich may have just stumbled upon the scientific breakthrough of a lifetime. It then quickly flashes backward to Geotti’s time spent in a small village in Ethiopia and his discovery that through trial-and-error and a keen knowledge of the local plant life, a doctor there may have come across a natural recipe for killing the disease. Intrigued, Geotti collects some samples and sends them off to Kresovich for further evaluation.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/throu...
July 6, 2012
This book and it's characters drew me in from the start. Not only the two main women characters, Ruth and Zahara, but the people who surround them. Characters such as Stefano with his charm, Robert with his fears and anxiety, and Ato Worku and his powerful, grumpy presence are so vivid to me. (this is how I interpreted them) the story lines by location in each chapter, by character are easy to follow and flow smoothly. The technical and cultural information is also well-presented and a handy glossary provided in back.
I read this book in about a few days time, I took my time reading slowly as to not miss a thing because I was intrigued. It was hard to put down. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I look forward to any future novels by this Author. I am very thankful to have won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway!
I read this book in about a few days time, I took my time reading slowly as to not miss a thing because I was intrigued. It was hard to put down. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I look forward to any future novels by this Author. I am very thankful to have won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway!
April 22, 2013
Through These Veins sounded like an intriguing book as I wondered what could connect a medicine man's daughter and an Italian research scientist beyond his time in her area of Ethiopia. While there was a connection when they met and then again later on in the book when their lives connect again, I think I was expecting more during the middle section of the book based on the description.
Overall I enjoyed the book even through there were sections I struggled to get through.
For my complete review please visit Library Girl Reads & Reviews
Overall I enjoyed the book even through there were sections I struggled to get through.
For my complete review please visit Library Girl Reads & Reviews
July 23, 2012
This is a wonderful story about the possibility of finding a cure for AIDS. What makes this such a great book is the characters. It helps to put a face on AIDS research and makes it more personal. The story illustrates how the disease and the research affects people's lives. Told from a variety of viewpoints, we get a look at all sides of the issue. It is mainly the story of Zahara, a young woman from a village in Ethiopia, and Ruth, who works at a pharmaceutical company in Washington, D.C. Through These Veins is a thought-provoking read with a touching story and I highly recommend.
June 2, 2012
This is typically not a book I would have picked up and bought myself but I am so glad I read it. The story is written beautifully with characters that captivate you. I couldn't wait to get to the end to find out what happened. Anne Marie Ruff makes you feel a part of her story with her descriptions of the countries and characters. I would love for the story of Zahara to continue.
April 9, 2012
I loved this book. It captured Ethiopia so vividly. Great novel.
April 11, 2012
Really interesting book about a battle to find a cure to HIV. Told jn an exciting and descriptive story.
May 11, 2012
Really enjoyed this book, informative, compelling, interesting; great characters. Thanks to Good Reads First Reads!!!!! Highly recommended!
November 1, 2012
Thoroughly enjoyed this story! A definite page turner. Want to find out if you agree?
October 30, 2012
a little neat and tidy but super interesting look at drug discovery among other things...
October 10, 2014
This book was delightfully ridiculous- it was like a mini-Dan Brown novel without the shadowy religious conspiracies and the elaborately creepy villains.
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February 26, 2015Interesting story concept, but poorly written with a weakly articulated plot.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews