Lara Santoro, a veteran journalist, discusses her first novel, *Mercy*, a tragic and powerful story of what it is like to die of AIDS in Africa. *Mercy* offers a glimpse into the role played by the pharmaceutical industry and the US government against the interests of an entire continent, and gives a name and face to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. This is a story Santoro has seen played out many times in her prize-winning coverage of Africa for *Newsweek* and the *Christian Science Monitor*. Her work has also appeared in *The Wall Street Journal*, *The New Republic* and the *London Sunday Times*.
Lara Santoro is most recently the author of *Mercy*, a novel. She spent most of her career as a foreign news correspondent, based primarily in Rome and in Nairobi working for *Newsweek* and *The Christian Science Monitor*. Her work has also appeared in* the Wall Street Journal*, *The New Republic*, *The Boston Globe*, *The London Telegraph*, *The Times of London* and *The Sunday Times*. She holds a bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature from Smith College, a Master's degree in French Literature from the Sorbonne, and a Master's in Fine Arts from New York University, where she was the recipient of the Developmental Fellowship, a biannual award. She was born in Rome, and currently lives in New Mexico.