Now Larson has put out “In the Garden of Beasts,” a widely praised nonfiction account of an American ambassador and his family posted to Berlin in 1933, as the Nazis come to power. Its first pages pulled me in. William E. Dodd is chairman of the history department at University of Chicago. An aging scholar, what Dodd wants most is to finish his multi-volume history of the South and retire to his Virginia farm. A call from Washington changes his life.

Off to Berlin with him is wife Mattie and their two adult children Martha, 24 and Bill, 28. (Endearingly frugal, Dodd ships their Chevrolet.) Recently divorced, Martha’s affairs on both sides of the pond cause even a modern gal to blush. Strangely, Martha hardly comes to life, even though we’re let in on her teas and parties, her lakeside and late night outings.

I’d like to say this is a thrilling read. It’s not. It is well written, and sobering. There’s the drip drip drip of Nazi aggression coupled with Dodd’s well-meaning but ineffective diplomacy. He’s a decent man in a magnificent country headed by murderous statesmen. Dodd gives speeches, he brings warnings to high places. No one listens.

Is this a time and place worth revisiting?

Dodd is dull but admirable. I pined with him as he ached to spend time on his farm, and worried with him that he’d die before finishing his “Old South” manuscript. Berlin comes to life, but the Dodd family barely registers. (Indeed, I was more concerned for the Jewish family who rented the Dodds their mansion, then hid in its attic.) The Nazis and their brutal rise to power overwhelms this story.

Nonfiction, I find, is more of a chore. There’s a stated thesis, and footnotes, and — let’s face it — an arid tone. I’ll keep reading typically because there’s something I want to learn.

Imagine my surprise, and delight, to stumble upon Anne Fadiman’s “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $15). It was one of those annoying suggestions that pop up when I’m ordering from Amazon.com. I’m glad I took the bait.

“The Spirit…” tells the story of a Hmong family that flees Laos for a refugee camp in Thailand, then emigrates to the U.S., settling in central California. The Lees believe that when one of their daughters slammed the front door of their apartment, the soul of their baby daughter, Lia, was snatched by evil spirits. Thereafter, Lia became severely epileptic.

Fadiman tells the story of the U.S. doctors who try to save Lia, as well as her family’s efforts to heal her through Hmong ritual. It’s a heartbreaking, maddening tale that stretches back to the Vietnam War. Hmong warriors helped the U.S.; as a reward, the U.S. promised protection. That’s how Lia’s family was able to emigrate.

I’m not anti-immigration, or an isolationist, but I winced more than once when the Lees sacrifice pigs to heal Lia. The pigs are paid for from the family’s welfare funds.

Is it wise for the U.S. to take in illiterate immigrants? Lia’s parents are unemployable; they’d been slash-and-burn farmers in Laos. Neither can recognize letters or numbers. When Lia is sent home from the hospital with medications, no one is sure she’s receiving them, or receiving the correct dose.

Fadiman is a warm and wise storyteller, and a fearless reporter. Through her work, I came to understand the rich Hmong culture, which persists in spite of diaspora. Too, I came to honor the U.S. doctors who cared for Lia. One of them reminds us, emphatically: “Western medicine saves lives.”