With a storyteller's eye for the affecting detail, Counts reveals the early years of Yunus and Grameen's efforts, in villages and the corridors of power, to bring microloans and opportunity to the 'functionally landless' of Bangladesh, especially women 'isolated from their society by illiteracy, poverty, and custom.' Counts's clear-eyed, practical-minded accounts are affecting, especially nuts-and-bolts accounts of loan recipients' first entrepreneurial efforts and what lessons they (and Counts and company) learn. The case studies here never shy away from the harshness of life or the setbacks loan recipients can face, though they (and the copious new data and research Counts presents) remain persuasive: microfinance changes lives. -Publishers Weekly BookLife (Editor's Pick) An edifying work and a thorough introduction to an important issue of social justice. -Kirkus Reviews This latest edition of Small Loans, Big Dreams offers fresh new insights on the young history of microfinance in the United States. A must-read for anyone interested in the field and its evolving worldwide impact. -Andrea Jung, President and CEO of Grameen America