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The Last Hunger Season
A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change
Roger Thurow

Public Affairs
May 29, 2012 / ISBN 978-1610390675
Non-fiction / Documentary / World Hunger
Amazon

Reviewed by Nicole Merritt

Originally a writer for the Wall Street Journal, Thurow's interest in hunger became a passion. This is his second book on the topic and is well written and well documented. He follows the lives of four farm families in Western Kenya in 2011. These farmers are called Hungry Farmers. Their names are based on the season's conditions; dry, rains, etc. Wanjala is the most predominant name for Kenya farmers, meaning hungry. As the author follows these farmers in their daily life, the reader gets a sense of the reality of the preparation and harvesting of their crops through the farming season.

This book is written in a thought provoking documentary style that keeps you turning pages in anticipation of the outcomes for these people. You feel their spirituality. It will open your eyes to the real people of farming in Africa, aside from the Ethiopian starving faces you see on TV. He enlightens the reader on the politics, and the One-Acre Fund. You get acquainted with the families and feel their plight and the dreams they hold for their children. This is an emotional story. This is a pass it on book.

Reviewed 2012
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