JOHANNESBURG, Nov 29 (AFP) - One year after music stars took to the stage in Cape Town to raise AIDS awareness, the literary world's glitterati is making its mark, coming together to help fight the pandemic with some of their best stories.
Salman Rushdie, John Updike and Gunter Grass are among the 21 authors featured in "Telling Tales", an anthology of short stories compiled by Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, whose works have given voice to South Africa's struggle against apartheid.
All proceeds from the book, to be published in 11 languages, will go to South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which has been at the forefront of the fight to provide free drug treatment to millions of people living with HIV and AIDS.
In an interview with AFP this week, Gordimer said "Telling Tales" allowed writers to make a "gesture" of compassion toward the 40 million people worldwide suffering from AIDS and HIV.
"I began to feel rather guilty on behalf of myself as a writer and other writers because the musicians were having these big gigs and beautiful concerts in aid of people suffering from HIV and AIDS," Gordimer said from her Johannesburg home alive with the smell of cooking.
"In other words, they were giving away talent, which for us, as artists is the best thing we have, the most precious thing..."
She wrote to 20 friends and fellow writers, asking them to contribute a short story, the only stipulation being that the stories were not to be specifically about AIDS.
"I wanted these to be beautiful stories celebrating life which is what people suffering with HIV and AIDS are deprived of, the fullness of life," said Gordimer who spoke from a sitting room, replete with books, African crafts and paintings.
The result is a booklover's feast, with tales from five Nobel literature laureates including Japan's Kenzaburo Oe who join Americans Woody Allen and Arthur Miller, Israel's Amos Oz and France's Michel Tournier.
The writers all agreed to forego royalties.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is to officially launch "Telling Tales" in New York on Tuesday, on the eve of World AIDS Day.
For AIDS activists at TAC, Gordimer's literary tour de force sends a powerful message to President Thabo Mbeki's government which they say has been slow to respond to the AIDS pandemic in South Africa affecting 5.3 million people.
"We are honored to receive the profits," said TAC spokesman Mark Heywood, "particularly given the fact that TAC is not popular with the South African government."
"It shows a degree of independence in recognising the value of the work we do and the impact we have had in saving people's lives," he said.
Gordimer however says there was no political agenda, emphatically pointing out that as a longstanding member of the African National Congress, she "approves" of everything Mbeki has been doing except his stance on AIDS.
"I cannot understand how someone with Thabo Mbeki's high intelligence, someone who is so well read and obviously has thought about the origins and prognosis of AIDS, how he can turn away from it," says Gordimer.
"It's absolutely baffling."
Gordimer, who has written 13 novels including "A World of Strangers", 10 short story collections and several nonfiction collections, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.
A year ago, South Africa was the focus of another star-studded event for AIDS when Bono, Peter Gabriel, Beyonce Knowles and The Eurythmics answered Nelson Mandela's call to take part in an AIDS fund-raising concert in Cape Town.
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