This is an account by a young American missionary of his attempt to convert the Amazon tribe of Piraha to Christianity.  Daniel Everett always knew that this was going to be a challenge, as the Piraha have resisted conversion for centuries.  However, fired up by youthful enthusiasm, Everett thinks that he will succeed where others have failed.  The main reason for his confidence is that he is a highly trained linguist.  So, he and his family settle in the Amazon.  Yet it’s not long before they run into trouble, as his wife and children suffer from malaria, which Daniel misdiagnoses.  Although the Piraha and other local peoples are very helpful in his bid to save his family, Daniel shrugs off the suggestions that they may be suffering from malaria until it is diagnosed in the hospital in which he has sought aid.  Later on, Daniel and his family come under threat from the Piraha when an unscrupulous river trader gives them alcohol.  The Piraha, annoyed that this missionary may have attempted to deny them access to drink, become abusive to the point where Daniel feels compelled to remove their weapons.  Another fascinating episode is when Daniel is confronted by a massive anaconda in the river.  However, I was less enamoured by Everett’s comprehensive account of the Piraha language, which became too technical at times for me.  While I appreciate the importance of his work, in trying to record a language that is now only spoken by a few hundred people, it’s inevitable that all languages, even English, will one day die.  During his time with the Piraha, Everett plays an important role in preserving their way of life, by persuading the government to create a Piraha reservation, as they are as at much as threat as the indigenous people in are James Cameron’s popular movie Avatar.  The Piraha ultimately resist Daniel’s attempt to convert them, as they refuse any narrative (such as the Bible) that is not the testimony of living witnesses.  Instead, Daniel identifies with the Piraha so much that he loses his own faith.  Everett’s conclusion that the Piraha’s way of life is literally paradisiacal is the only part of the book that feels underthought though, as this is contradicted by episodes that display the more unsavoury aspects of the Piraha character.  Everett’s only mistake seems to be that by living with the Piraha so long, he has identified with them a little too much.  Yet one can very much understand why he would do so in such a vital environment.