How many die

the long version

"Celebrated short story writer Roger Skillings' first novel grows out of Provincetown's gay community at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Without scanting the tragedy and bereavement of that epochal time and place, How Many Die honors the spirit, compassion, and courage of those who have chosen to make their home and fight their battles for survival and dignity there. As always, Skillings regards a wide array of characters from an equally wide variety of personal and social circumstances, brought together by the promise of Utopia, by their shared culture, the living and dying that shape them, and the human qualities that are mustered to abide or surmount their individual and collective crisis."--BOOK JACKET.