HIV/AIDS is not usually associated with the literature that is studied in English Studies, for example, particularly in South Africa where there is still an uncomfortable silence in spite of the ever growing number of infections. Something however is happening quietly to break this pattern of response in the form of biblio- and narrative therapy. Stories are being written for young people who themselves are involved in projects to write stories and poetry. The focus in this paper is on the use of narratives to teach, heal and commemorate. The narrative will be examined in so far as it challenges the image of the illness in fiction like Lutz van Dijk's Stronger than the Storm and Long Life: Positive Stories comprising 13 disclosures and testimonies with body maps of the Bambanani Women's Group as part of the Memory Box Outreach project conducted by UCT. Long Life composed by women from the townships who draw body maps and orally relate their stories which are then transcribed is also about different ways of book-making and storytelling. The narratives will be discussed to show how they give hope in the midst of death.