The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder returns with the extraordinary true story of Deo, a young man who arrives in America from Burundi in search of a new life. After surviving a civil war and genocide, he ekes out a precarious existence delivering groceries, living in Central Park, and learning English by reading dictionaries in bookstores until he begins to meet the strangers who will change his life, pointing him eventually in the direction...

Having survived the horrors of civil war and genocide, Deo arrives at JFK airport from Burundi with two hundred dollars and no contacts; he begins to meet the strangers who will point him towards Columbia University, medical school, and a life devoted to healing.