How Beautiful We Were: Imbolo Mbue

An American oil company has brought havoc on a small fictional African village and upended the lives of residents there. Pipeline spills have ruined farmlands and turned local water supplies toxic, and the local government only wants to make a profit. So the locals do the only thing they can and start to fight back. The novel is told through generations of those who are fighting, outlining the toll it takes over time and just how long their fight to make a change lasts. ---- A PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST 'Sweeping and quietly devastating' _New York Times_ 'A David and Goliath story for our times' _O, the Oprah Magazine_ 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 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.