How Beautiful We Were
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A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers. ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, People • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, The Christian Science Monitor, Marie Claire, Ms. magazine, BookPage, Kirkus Reviews “Mbue reaches for the moon and, by the novel’s end, has it firmly held in her hand.”—NPR We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made—and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price. Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, 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 on to its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.
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The audiobook was excellent, as the different readers made sense when the narrators shifted, and heightened my appreciation for Mbue's structure that I don't think I would have liked if reading it on the page. This is a departure from Behold the Dreamers and shows real range. I prefer a more linear story, but in audio form I liked hearing more details from each narrator and didn't mind that that took away from the pacing and meandered around in time. The subject is really emotional but I didn't feel emotionally connected, even by the tragedies building to the end, and part of that is the structure forced the reader to be at a remove. I think I appreciated this book more than I enjoyed it, but I'll definitely continue to read what Mbue publishes.
This beautifully written novel was touching, poetic and an emotional read. Set in the fictional village of Kosawa, where their farmlands, water supply and air have been corrupted by an American oil company, Pexton, the people of Kosawa are left to simply survive whilst watching the devastation that the oil has caused around them. It is not only their land that is suffering but their family and friends. Children are dying with too many people being buried before their time. With the company not taking ownership and washing their hands of the situation in Kosawa, the people are left with no option other than to fight back.
As the story unfolds we hear the voices of different people within the village from ‘The Children' through to different members of Thula's family. Each voice is not only thought-provoking but heartfelt. This is a story of struggle, exploitation, oppression, grief, loss but also of family, hope, love, dedication and fighting for what is right.
A memorising, poignant read that I urge you to read.
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