“Heartbreakingly inspirational.” (AsianWeek) Ma Yan's heart-wrenching, honest diary chronicles her struggle to escape hardship through her persistent, sometimes desperate, attempts to continue her schooling. In a drought-stricken corner of rural China, an education can be the difference between a life of crushing poverty and the chance for a better future. But for Ma Yan, money is scarce, and the low wages paid for backbreaking work aren't always enough to pay school fees, or even to provide enough food for herself and her family. The publication of The Diary of Ma Yan was an international sensation, creating an outpouring of support for this courageous teenager and others like her . . . all due to one ordinary girl's extraordinary diary. "You don't review this small book; you tell people about it and say, 'Read it.'" (Washington Post)

Wednesday, November 7 My father gave me and my brother a little money. My stomach is all twisted up with hunger, but I don't want to spend the money on anything as frivolous as food. Because it's money my parents earn with their sweat and blood. I have to study well so that I won't ever again be tortured by hunger. . . . In a drought-stricken corner of rural China, an education can be the difference between a life of crushing poverty and the chance for a better future. But money is scarce, and the low wages paid for backbreaking work aren't always enough to pay school fees. Ma Yan's heart-wrenching, honest diary chronicles her struggle to escape hardship and bring prosperity to her family through her persistent, sometimes desperate, attempts to continue her schooling. First published in France in 2002, the diary of ma yan created an outpouring of support for this courageous teenager and others like her -- support that led to the creation of an international organization dedicated to helping these children . . . all because of one ordinary girl's extraordinary diary.

No more money for school this year. I till the land in order to pay for my brothers' schooling. When I think of the happy times at school, I can almost imagine myself there. How I want to study!' - Ma Yan, aged 13 When the journalist Pierre Haski was passed three small brown notebooks in a remote province in Northeastern China, an extraordinary friendship began. 'A few years ago in the remote village of Zhangjiashu in Ningxia region of northern China Ma Yan was distraught because her parents could not afford to keep her in school. Today she is the 16-year-old author of Ma Yan's Diary which has appeared in seventeen languages . Thanks to its publication, her family is no longer poor, and 250 other Ningxia youngsters, mostly girls, now have scholarships to continue studying' New York Times

Central America from the eyes of a peasant illuminates the complex problems of the region: social, personal, economic, medical, and religious as well as the political issues related to the great masses of Latin America's poor.

His vivid and plain-spoken account of life among the Maya during the war between guerrillas and the army in the 1980s and 1990s offers detailed descriptions of the atrocities committed by both sides and brings the reader into a Mayan world richly textured with indigenous beliefs and practices.