Botanist Cox became involved with a remote Samoan village at the edge of a rain forest where he went to pursue his study of rain-forest remedies (work done in conjunction with both native healers and the US National Cancer Institute). The title refers to Nafanua, a Samoan goddess who in ancient times freed the people from oppression and taught them to protect the rain forest; her story helped inspire a collaboration between Cox and the village elders in the attempt to stop the logging of the Falealupo rain forest. This account of their efforts won the Goldman Environmental Prize (awarded annually to an environmentalist from each of the six inhabited continents). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR