Champion of Choice: The Life and Legacy of Women's Advocate Nafis Sadik
*Starred Review* Born in a time and place where the arrival of a female child was cause for consolation, not celebration, Sadik stood the world on its head. Of Indian descent, she grew up in Pakistan after Partition and defied convention by eschewing the traditional marriage-family route when she announced her plans to attend medical school. With the full support of her family and fiancé, Sadik completed her medical degree in obstetrics, thus launching the lifelong involvement in women’s reproductive-health issues that would eventually lead to her becoming the first female director of a United Nations agency. As such, Sadik traveled the globe, from tribal African villages to papal Vatican apartments, raising awareness of the deplorable state of women’s health and reproductive rights. Causes such as combating genital mutilation, domestic abuse, infant and mother mortality, and rape-as-war-crime received her unwavering concern and relentless advocacy. Extensively researched, Miller’s engrossing biography illuminates Sadik’s formidable passion for such issues, most notably through crystalline vignettes about women from Kenya to Kosovo whose individual narratives transformed Sadik’s mission into a personal commitment.  An indefatigable supporter, tenacious crusader, and powerful proponent of women’s autonomy, Sadik is a hero for all ages and genders. --Carol Haggas