{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374527806?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0374527806","authors":["George Packer"],"book_id":"9780374527808","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-village-of-waiting-9780374527808","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780374527808.jpg?v=4f43d42df7151ea6","description":"Back in print, the \"masterful\" ( The New York Times Book Review ) account of an American in West Africa Now restored to print with a new Foreword by Philip Gourevitch and an Afterword by the author, The Village of Waiting is a frank, moving, and vivid account of contemporary life in West Africa. Stationed as a Peace Corps instructor in the village of Lavié (the name means \"wait a little more\") in tiny and underdeveloped Togo, George Packer reveals his own schooling at the hands of an unforgettable array of townspeople—peasants, chiefs, charlatans, children, market women, cripples, crazies, and those who, having lost or given up much of their traditional identity and fastened their hopes on \"development,\" find themselves trapped between the familiar repetitions of rural life and the chafing monotony of waiting for change.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780374527808","publication_date":"20010801","publisher":"Farrar Straus & Giroux","slug":"the-village-of-waiting","subtitle":"","title":"The Village of Waiting"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"TRV002080","confidence_band":"medium","label":"West Africa Travel","score":0.7517,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"West African History","score":0.7398,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"East African History","score":0.7302,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"TRV002080","confidence_band":"medium","label":"West Africa Travel","score":0.7517,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"West African History","score":0.7398,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"East African History","score":0.7302,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO025000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Lives in Journalism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC002010","confidence_band":"high","label":"How Cultures Work","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TRV002080","confidence_band":"high","label":"West Africa Travel","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"West Africa Travel","score":0.7517,"slug":"west-africa-travel"},{"label":"West African History","score":0.7398,"slug":"west-african-history"},{"label":"East African History","score":0.7302,"slug":"east-african-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in contemporary life in West Africa","Good for readers interested in rural life and hopes for development"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Jeffrey Gettleman"],"book_id":"9780062284105","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062284105.jpg?v=1bfd323c3a2aec8c","score":0.6625,"title":"Love, Africa","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062284105"},{"authors":["M.G. 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