In the Shadow of the Sacred Grove

By honestly describing her difficult and gradual acceptance into the daily life of a West African rural community -- a world of herders, potters, subsistence farmers, diviners and initiates -- Carol Spindel renders a foreign culture with exceptional immediacy and emotional depth. She is especially drawn to the world of women, and her portraits of that world's beauty and hardship are extraordinary for their precision, warmth, and dramatic power. A New York Times Notable Book. This engaging a...