A Billion Lives: An Eyewitness Report From The Frontlines Of Humanity
By Jan Egeland
Simon & Schuster £18.99, 272 pages
FT bookshop price: £15.19

Thirty years ago, a Norwegian teenager found himself living with the Motilones Indians in the jungles of Colombia. It was an unnerving encounter for both sides. Barely a decade had passed since the Indians had first come into contact with infections such as the common cold, with fatal consequences for the adults among them. As for the 19-year-old, he suddenly realised that his attempt to combine social work with a boy’s own-style adventure had taken him perilously far from home.