In the Company of Men by Véronique Tadjo

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things Tour for Véronique Tadjo's In the Company of Men. 

In 2014, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone became the site of a horrific Ebola outbreak. As the virus raged through the countries, it spread fear and death far and wide. It was two years before the epidemic was declared over and it claimed many thousands of lives. It is this outbreak that inspired In the Company of Men: The Ebola Tales. 

This was not an easy read both for the topic and the times. I've read about Ebola before, but in a more clinical and distanced way. Here, Tadjo brings readers inside the Ebola epidemic with vignettes told by everyone from nurses on site and people tasked with safely burying the bodies to the trees that witness the epidemic wreaking havoc on the human population. 

Each chapter is a different viewpoint. A different experience of the virus. And reading it amidst a global pandemic, it's hard not to see similarities. 

As a nurse outlines the fear that results in those around her when they learn that she works with Ebola patients, it's impossible not to think of all the hospital workers who have been dealing with Covid. That particular piece was moving also when the nurse touches on lack of funding and patients having to buy their own first aid materials to bring with them. 

There are so many parts of this book that made my heart ache. A paragraph about a young girl waiting for her parents' bodies to be removed. Waiting so long that she herself becomes infected. In another chapter, we return to a daughter who was sent away—her father hoped she'd be spared and yet, she's already infected. She survives but her family and even her village are gone. 

The human stories are counterbalanced by nature's voice. The baobab tree, the bat, and even Ebola itself. And when people declare the virus gone, all three know that humans face many threats. The worst threat, though, is humankind itself. 

In the Company of Men is a moving book. The chapters are short, but this is, as you'd probably expect from the subject, a heavy read. It's one that makes you think and one that sits with you well beyond the final pages.