13.466 isole, 360 gruppi etnici che parlano 719 lingue diverse, 5200 chilometri (e tre fusi orari) da ovest a est, una straordinaria varietà di tradizioni, cibi, religioni, musiche... L'Indonesia è un mosaico difficile da ricomporre, una "nazione improbabile" perché in apparenza lontanissima da un'idea di unità. Spostandosi su autobus sgangherati, traghetti e taxi condivisi, Elizabeth Pisani ha compiuto un viaggio di oltre 20.000 chilometri, che le ha permesso di dipingere l'umanità ricchissima e varia del quarto gigante demografico del mondo. Un Paese poco conosciuto anche perché relativamente giovane, nato dalle ceneri del predatorio colonialismo olandese. Un Paese oggi orgogliosamente democratico ma ancora alle prese con una corruzione pervasiva e un limitato rispetto dei diritti delle donne, della comunità queer e più in generale delle minoranze, dove città ultramoderne come Jakarta vivono insieme a comunità in cui le tradizioni conservano un peso enorme. Un viaggio eccezionale, che si addentra nell'irrisolta battaglia per definire l'Indonesia.

Jakarta tweets more than any other city on earth, but 80million Indonesians live without electricity and many of itscommunities still share in ritual sacrifices. Declaring independencein 1945, Indonesia said it would “work out the detailsof the transfer of power etc. as soon as possible.” With over300 ethnic groups spread across 13,500 islands, the world’sfourth most populous nation has been working on that“etc.” ever since. Bewitched by Indonesia for twenty-fiveyears, Elizabeth Pisani recently traveled 26,000 miles aroundthe archipelago in search of the links that bind this impossiblydisparate nation. Fearless and funny, Pisani shares herdeck space with pigs and cows, bunks down in a sulfurousvolcano, and takes tea with a corpse. Along the way, sheobserves Big Men with child brides, debates corruption andcannibalism, and ponders “sticky” traditions that cannot beerased.

As an epidemiologist researching AIDS, Elizabeth Pisani has been involved with international efforts to halt the disease for fourteen years. With swashbuckling wit, fierce honesty, and more than a little political incorrectness, she dishes on herself and her colleagues as they try to prod reluctant governments to fund HIV prevention for the people who need it most: drug injectors, gay men, sex workers, and johns. With verve and clarity, Pisani shows the general reader how her profession really works; how easy it is to draw wrong conclusions from “objective” data; and, shockingly, how much money is spent so very badly.

This controversial book addresses how sex and drugs have turned the global epidemic of HIV into a billion-dollar-a-year industry. Epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani takes a no-holdsbarred approach to finding out exactly why 40 million people are living with HIV and 28 million have already died of AIDS when we have the knowledge, the money, and the means to wipe out the disease in 90 percent of the world.