How Beautiful We Were

De: Imbolo Mbue

Narrado por: Allyson Johnson, Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, JD Jackson

Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, How Beautiful We Were tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean-up and financial reparations to the villagers are made-and ignored. The country's government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interest only. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. But their fight will come at a steep price, one which generation after generation will have to pay.

Told through the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community's determination to hold onto its ancestral land and a young woman's willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people's freedom.

©2020 Imbolo Mbue (P)2020 Canongate Books Ltd

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A formidable storyteller." (Jonathan Franzen)

An Amazing Story

This is the first book of Imbolo Mbue that I read. This story was beautifully written and narrated. Imbolo Mbue had me hocked from the beginning. So much emotion, pain, love, commitment, tradition.

Beautifully written, beautifully read

Yes this is an important story- of our time- but more importanly it is delivered excellently. I have never read such beautifully articulated female characters, especially older 'widowed' women. Some passages were so beautiful I am prompted to buy a hard copy of the book so that I can read and reread them.