Showing Konkai: Living Between Two Worlds (A Memoir) by Mardia Stone

Konkai Stevens was a quiet ten-year-old when he was molested at school by an older male student. The pain of the experience devastated him emotionally and was the beginning of his confusion about his sexuality. Konkai ultimately embraced a homosexual lifestyle, and, because he took no precautions, eventually contracted HIV and died of AIDS in Boston, USA, at the age of 32. This memoir, written by his sister, is a narrative of the dynamics between Konkai and his family as they dealt with his sexual orientation and his illness while their country, Liberia, was being destroyed by a brutal civil war. Told with intimate detail, Konkai is a tragic story of searching for one’s place in life, of longing for love and acceptance, and of preparing to let go.