The Book Prize Index

We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky: The Seductive Promise of Microfinance

Mara Kardas-Nelson

Shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Prize A deeply reported work of journalism that explores the promises and perils of microfinance, told through the eyes of international lenders and women borrowers in West Africa In the mid-1970s, Muhammad Yunus, an American trained Bangladeshi economist, met a poor female stool maker who needed money to expand her business. In an act widely known as the beginning of microfinance, Yunus lent $27 to forty-two women, hoping small credit would help the women pull themselves out of poverty. Soon, Yunus’s Grameen Bank was born, and the idea of giving very small, high-interest loans to poor people took off. In 2006, Yunus and the Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize for “efforts to create economic and social development from below.” But there’s a problem with this story.

Journalism & ReportageJournalism & Reportage · medium confidenceJournalism & Reportage81 signalsLlm Classifier: Journalism & Reportage -> Journalism & ReportageKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryKeyword Classifier: Business & Economics -> Business & EconomicsBusiness, Capitalism & CorporationsClass, Poverty & InequalityGender & FeminismLabor, Work & Organizing

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize2025FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Muhammad Yunus68%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • West Africa62%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

    This suggestion did not meet the normal display threshold and is more likely to be wrong.

    The book argues that microfinance’s widely told promise is misleading, and that its real effects—seen through lenders and women borrowers—include serious perils alongside any gains.

    Model confidence 56%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 74%.