Anne Marie Ruff

A small village in Ethiopia houses a university graduate, a doctor who returned to his humble home and abandoned the solace of convenient little pills in clearly labeled bottles for the life of a 'medicine man,' of a sort. When he finds a cure for a debilitating illness, one he has no name for but affects nearly everyone in his home country, people begin to flock to his village for the cure. An Italian biodiversity specialist visits the village to encourage the local coffee farmers to show more continue their trade and identifies the illness as HIV, and skeptically sends a sample of the plant to his colleagues in the United States.

Through These Veins makes an interesting comparison between traditional healing techniques and the pharmaceutical industry, one that isn't exactly new but is no less important. I'm very fond of science and the scientific method, and I love what modern science has given us. I raise my eyebrow questionably at some of the rather absurd things those of a more superstitious mindset can believe will heal them. With that said, it's so frustrating when all of it is motivated by money, and that it benefits a company more to build a treatment regimen that will generate regular customers over a solid cure-all drug.

Anne Marie Ruff is a reporter on AIDS research, at least two of the characters are real people she knows who have been fictionalized for the novel, and some of the events that take place in the novel were taken from her own personal experiences. All this adds a sense of validity and realism to the narrative, which is only compounded by 2-3 vivid characters that really bring the narrative to life. Though at times the book felt like it needed to be fleshed out a bit, as there were a couple of momentous events that ended so abruptly and were dwelt upon so little that I thought perhaps I skipped a page by mistake; this didn't stop me from enjoying it as a whole, and I liked the message behind it all. It is one that showcases the promise of science and the shackles put upon it by corporate greed, something that has a negative impact on all of us. show less

Beneath the Same Heaven turned out to be so good that it just about broke me emotionally. It reads as a mystery combined with a love story combined with intense family drama.

The main character, Kathryn, is an American woman who marries Rashid, a Pakistani-born Muslim man. Their love story is raw and believable in a way that draws you in without you noticing how attached you’re becoming to the characters.

Beneath the Same Heaven is broken up into Four Parts: The Book of Before, The Book of show more Kathryn, The Book of Rashid, and The Book of After. When I first began reading it, I didn’t think I was going to like it. BUUUUTTTT…

I now believe Beneath the Same Heaven should be required reading!

By the end of Part Two, I was so deeply committed and emotionally involved in the story of Kathryn and Rashid, that I had to take a break and walk away. This has never happened to me before! But mine and Kathryn’s hearts had been broken… our world was upside down… nothing had turned out the way it was supposed to, even though it seemed that things would be okay in the end… But things weren’t right!

I found myself talking about Kathryn as if she were a real person whose life was intertwined with my own. The problem (other than being that attached to a fictional character) was that there was no way for me to talk to her and give her my advice or comfort her at all! And her situation felt so real that I had broken right along with her…

My poor husband had to suffer the wrath of my intense emotional breakdown over what Rashid had put Kathryn and their children through. It felt as if he had just put me through it as well… I felt bad for abandoning her in her time of need, but my family needed me to take a break and come back to reality before proceeding with the rest of story.

And WHAT a rest of the story it was…

Anne Marie Ruff actually managed to make me root for the terrorist!!!

Still, I wasn’t all that thrilled with the beginning… to the point that I almost DNF’d the book! (Insanely glad I didn’t!!!) The problem was what seemed to me to be near gratuitous sex scenes between Kathryn and Rashid. I understand that the author was trying to show their deep desire & connection to each other, but it came across as forced and overly detailed at times.

I definitely recommend picking up this book and devouring it as soon as possible!

THANK YOU TO OPEN BOOKS FOR PROVIDING ME WITH A FREE DIGITAL COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.

Full review at https://jesscombs.com show less

Set in both the jungle of Ethiopia and research labs in Washington DC, Through These Veins zeros in on the tragic clash between biologists' search for a plant that will cure Aids and the realities of dealing with a for-profit pharmaceutical company, which has funded their research. Anne Marie Ruff does a beautiful job capturing both the atmosphere of traditional healers at work and the excitement of scientists on the verge of a tremendous medical breakthrough. She creates believable, show more sympathetic characters, whom she places into a fascinating setting. This novel was a pleasure to read. show less

I received my copy of this novel through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.

The day after I finished reading ‘Beneath the Same Heaven’ a drone strike resulting in the death of a Taliban leader in Kunar, Afghanistan, in the border region with Pakistan, was announced.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/leader-pakistani-taliban-killed-u-s-drone-str...

There were other deaths in the strike, but little information is available about the incident.

Such a drone strike is the key element in show more this excellent novel. When Rashid’s father dies at a wedding celebration in rural Pakistan his family expects retribution against the perpetrator who, in this case, is the United States, the country that Rashid lives and works in with his American wife.

Further complicating the situation is that Rashid is now the father of two American boys, both very young. His family in Pakistan, and their connections however, are unmoved. There must be retribution.

I liked the way that the author constructed this story in four parts: What happened before, Kathryn’s (his wife) story, Rashid’s story, and what happened afterwards. At times, the same episode was told in three different, slightly varying ways. It was intriguing that none of the characters had all the information of what was going on around them and affecting them.

There are a number of important issues that are raised by this book. Firstly, these situations might be far more complex than we realise. Secondly, the initial response or ‘obvious’ interpretation of an event may be quite wrong. Further, while remotely controlled drone strikes might be “good” for the operator in that actual people on the ground on “our side” are spared the danger of a particular combat situation, the person controlling the drone is not immune from the actuality that their action has killed someone https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/magazine/veterans-ptsd-drone-warrior-wounds.h...

This is a really good novel because it makes the reader appreciate a real and current danger in unexpected ways, and at times makes one sympathetic to characters in ways that one wouldn’t expect. show less