Anne Marie Ruff is a reporter and friend of the Vaviblog who wants to let readers know about her first novel, Through These Veins.
With the recently published novel, Through These Veins, I am hoping to introduce Vavilov and his mission to a completely new audience; readers who enjoy a good yarn and who may never have heard the word biodiversity before.
In the story, Vavilov’s real life is interwoven with the fictional life of a modern day plant explorer – an heir to Vavilov’s understanding of the tremendous value of wild and cultivated biodiversity with which humans interact all over the planet.
In the coffee-growing highlands of Ethiopia, the plant explorer (inspired by a charismatic Italian Bioversity 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, US-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.
The novel is the product of years of reporting on the biodiversity community, which allowed me to travel to several of the same countries where Vavilov explored and collected.
As admirers of Vavilov and biodiversity proponents, I hope Vaviblog readers will welcome Vavilov’s appearance in a fictional story. And if you think your friends beyond the biodiversity community might enjoy the story, so much the better.
All profits from the sale of this eBook ($3.45 of the $4.99 price) will be distributed to the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation in Ethiopia and the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders. The print version of the book is expected in June 2011.
If you want to know more about this project, follow Through These Veins on Facebook.
