Ambassador to a Small World is a highly personal portrait of Chad from the vantage point of Christopher E. Goldthwait, the longest-serving U.S. Ambassador to N’Djamena. The book touches on Chad’s politics, economy, and society and on U.S. foreign policy, foreign aid, and the life of the small American community in one of the continent’s most isolated countries.

More deeply, the book comprises Goldthwait’s perceptive reflections on the country and its people and his thoughtful account of what he learned from them. He relates the joys and frustrations of being ambassador in a so-called “presence post.” Goldthwait’s final letter, written a month after he returned to Washington, tells how experiencing Chad led him to see his own country and city in a new light.

Originating as a series of monthly letters to a dozen close friends, the book preserves the epistolary format, with the letters grouped into topical chapters. Much of the book is a travelogue, describing 25,000 miles of travel, of which 15,000 were overland, to nearly every corner of Chad. What began as descriptive quickly became analytical and reflective. Because the letters deal more with the nature of the country and its people than with specific events, they can still pass contemporary muster.