Nisa, a member of the !Kung tribe of hunters-and-gatherers from southern Africa's Kalahari desert, now in her fifties, would be considered a remarkable woman in any culture: as a small child she saved her newborn brother from infanticide; first married at the age of twelve to a man she did not want, she was separated, divorced, remarried, widowed; she bore four children, none of whom survived; dependent on no one, she foraged for food in one of the world's most hostile environments. This book is the story of her life, as told in her own words - earthy, emotional, vivid - to Marjorie Shostak, a Harvard anthropologist who succeeded, with Nisa's collaboration, in breaking through the immense barriers of language and culture.