Alemneh Dejene has aptly subtitled this book “A View from the Village.” Its contribution is in providing the detail borne of experience in one of the world's least forgiving economic environments. It uses extensive personal interviews with peasants to penetrate the logic of existence in rural Ethiopia without relying on emotional or superficial impressions from the interviewer. The author found the right questions to ask and presents the answers he received clearly. He modestly avoids the error of deriving the solutions to Ethiopia's problems from a limited set of observations, even though the observations represent an important addition to the international literature.