Review: Everything Lost Is Found Again: Four Seasons in Lesotho

Everything Lost Is Found Again: Four Seasons in Lesotho by Will McGrath
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I look for books set in other countries, I always try to find ownvoices reads first. In a rare case I will read a memoir of an outsider's experience in the country, like I have done in this case.

Will McGrath spends his initial year in Lesotho (pronounced Leh-soo-too) because his wife is a cultural anthropologist focused on AIDs and resulting orphans. Lesotho's adult population is 25% HIV positive, with a lot of grandparents caring for grandchildren, so it was the right place for her to go. Will worked at a school.

Unlike some outsider writings where they seem to mock people living in a place (J. Maarten Troost comes to mind,) Will is curious about language nuances and how people think, without taking any of it too seriously. Both he and Ellen build relationships with people and seem good at going with the flow. I wish he knew that granadilla was passion fruit though. That's going to bug me forever.

I learned a lot about the country landlocked by South Africa, while also being entirely different from South Africa. This will count for the Read the World 21 challenge for this month, focusing on South and East Africa, and crosses another country off my world list.

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