Nancy Scheper-Hughes

The author worked as a community nurse in a pueblo in the NE of Brazil and returned there to do her thesis. It's a heartbreaking book to read (unless you're a vegan, and used to the heartlessness of humans), because the people she writes about are so very poor that it doesn't mean much to them when one of their babies dies. One less mouth to feed.

What is infuriating is the attitude of capitalists towards the poor here, whose poverty they caused, as their attitude is everywhere.

Scheper-Hughes is a social anthropologist, but she´s also a very good narrator. The book is an original ethnography, but it´s a kind of roman, too, and it´s full of very critical theory.
The main point of the book (among a lot more) is the deconstruction of motherhood/health-illness/death... as natural.

This book is very sad, but very good. Its a cultural anthropology first person ethnography. I read it when writing my undergraduate thesis and quite liked it. I would be a good read for people who like Brazil, people who like cultural anthropology, or people who like to know about how different cultures deal with death. This book is quite long for an ethnography, but manages to stay interesting throughout!