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, this is 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 broken. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. But it will come at a steep price - one which generation after generation will have to pay.

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.

"Sweeping and quietly devastating . . . In Kosawa, Mbue has created a place and a people alive with emotional range . . . Profoundly affecting" - * New York Times *

"A David and Goliath story for our times, a riveting tale of how people coming together to make change can topple even the fiercest, best-financed foe" - * O, The Oprah Magazine *

"Imbolo Mbue's revelatory novel of a fictional African village ruined by Big Oil is a mighty addition to the stacks" - * ELLE *

"Tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Exploring what happens when the reckless drive for profit comes up against one community's determination to hold onto its ancestral land, it makes for unputdownable reading" - * Glamour, Best new novel you won't want to put down *

"Imbolo Mbue crafts an aching narrative about greed, community and perseverance" - * Time *

"A generation of narrative voices, many of them children, shape this sweeping, elegiac story of capitalism, colonialism and boundless greed, reminding us of the myriad ways we fail to make a better world for our children" - * Esquire *