Jared Diamond, an anthropologist, is the author of the wildly popular book "Guns, Germs, and Steel."
Diamond spent much of his career working in Papua New Guinea, and told The New York Times that Sabine Kuegler's book "approximates an account of Western society through the eyes of a New Guinean."
As the child of German missionaries, Kuegler grew up among the Fayu tribe of Papua New Guinea as one of the few white people the tribe had ever encountered.
Her autobiographical work describes the culture shock she felt when she left the forest to attend boarding school in Europe at the age of 17.
Diamond wrote of the book:
"Europe was as much of a shock to Sabine as the New Guinea jungle is to a Westerner. Through Sabine’s words, we experience what it is like to encounter traffic lights, trains and strangers for the first time. By Fayu standards, the variety of chocolates in Europe is wonderful, but the way that Europeans treat each other is not wonderful. This book gives a view of Western life from a fresh perspective shared by no Westerner."
Buy it here.