Advanced Review – Uncorrected Proof
Issue: June 1, 2010

The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years.
Shah, Sonia (Author)
Jul 2010. 304 p. Farrar/Sarah Crichton, hardcover,  $26.00. (9780374230012). 614.5.

Investigative journalist Shah maintains her signature pattern (Crude, 2004; The Body Hunters, 2006) here,
exposing both the seemly and not-so-seemly aspects of the subject under review. As Shah demonstrates,
when it comes to taming, never mind eradicating, malaria, the disease is cannily able to keep the ball in
humankind’s court. Notwithstanding, people in tropical climes who live with its ubiquitous presence have
over time come to uneasy terms with the fever. That is not to say they would not benefit from a cure.
Indeed, their need is most critical. It’s just that when Western nontropical humans are exposed to malaria,
they suffer its worst effects, then tackle the problem in largely ineffectual ways. And it is not for want of
money (think Bill and Melinda Gates). But Shah takes no prisoners, blasting everyone, including the
World Health Organization. Even Harvard’s state-of-the art Malaria Initiative takes it on the chin for
eschewing unglamorous but effectual grunt work in favor of “lavishly funded . . . economy building
technology.” Malaria may rule humankind, but Shah rules the in-depth investigative report.

— Donna Chavez

Courtesy of Booklist