After attending Berkeley and pursuing her career in law, Alyse meets and marries George, a diplomat whose assignments take the couple from one developing country to the next. Alyse's cousin Catherine foregoes marriage in favor of a career in medicine and chooses to raise a child, David, alone.
When Alyse and George go to a new place, Catherine and David follow, allowing Catherine to train midwives and educate women about their health. Wealthy patrons in San Francisco set up a foundation to underwrite the women's work in some of the most underserved and desperate places in the world.
When George receives an assignment in Afghanistan, Alyse worries that the country is so restrictive-and plagued by violence-that they cannot continue their work. But even after tragedy strikes, the foundation insists the cousins continue working in Afghanistan, leading Alyse and Catherine to pour themselves into the ravaged nation and its people at significant personal cost.
Essential Movement Only is an elegant and intelligent look at the costs of parallel war and development, the cultural barriers to effective relief work, and the strength of family in all its forms.
About the Author: Jane Zimmerman taught in Nevada for two decades and obtained an MA in curriculum and instruction before moving to Washington, DC. There, Zimmerman taught at George Washington University, pursued a PhD she decided not to complete, and worked as the program manager for the Urban Initiative, a project designed to address the early burnout of urban teachers.
In 2001 Zimmerman began working for the Peace Corps as a programming and training officer in Bangladesh, Mongolia, and China. In 2006 she joined the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for a higher education project in Afghanistan. During her six-and-a-half years in Afghanistan, she also worked on a community-based education project with the International Rescue Committee. Before retiring from development work, she served in Liberia, working on a teacher-training project.
Zimmerman lives in the Pacific Northwest and writes full-time.
