In Peru’s northeastern highlands, the Yanacocha open-pit gold mine sits like a scar. Yanacocha has already poisoned the waters for miles, but the American-owned Newmont Mining Corp. wants to branch out with the new Conga Mine. It has one obstacle. She stands less than 5 feet tall and is dwarfed by her hat but is cowed by no one. She is illiterate but eloquent. She is Máxima Acuña, a subsistence farmer who, with her husband, refuses to leave their land, thus blocking the expansion. Harassed by local police, her home and crops destroyed repeatedly, nevertheless Máxima persists. With the support of environmental rights organizations and an indigenous activist community, she has taken the case for her land and its habitat all the way to D.C., eventually winning the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize. Reality can be as heroic as fiction, but its exploits are ongoing, as is Máxima’s struggle.—Judy Bloch