How Beautiful We Were: A Novel
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.
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How Beautiful We Were was one of the most disturbing books I’ve read in a long time. While it’s a work of fiction, it echoes realities that continue to affect communities around the world. Reading it left me heartbroken and unsettled.
What sickens me most is the damage that greed can inflict—not only on the environment, but on people, families, cultures, and entire communities. When profit is pursued without regard for human dignity or the long-term consequences of our actions, the costs are often borne by those with the least power to prevent it.
This book also left me with questions. How can I be part of a society that is more thoughtful about the impact we have on one another and on the world we share? How can we make decisions that value human wellbeing alongside progress and prosperity? I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that books like this help us ask better questions. For that, I’m grateful.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House publishing and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
This is the first novel by Imbolo Mbue that I have read and was incredibly excited to read, How Beautiful We Were, after reading numerous positive reviews for, Behold the Dreamers. Mbue writes from a lyrical and brutally honest perspective, forcing the reader to live the tale and feel the pain that the characters are experiencing.
The novel centers around a fictional South African village called Kosawa, where its inhabitants are literally being poisoned by the carelessness and disregard of an American oil company, Pexton. Pexton has overrun their rivers and their land with toxic waste and pipelines to extract the oil that lies beneath the village. The people cry out, bury their family members too frequently, and tend to their sick children as Pexton continuously tells them there isn't anything wrong with their land and threatens them from pursuing it any further.
The narratives throughout the book change between different villagers which allows for the reader to understand how each person is feeling throughout. I especially enjoyed hearing from the children as they discussed the whispers they hear from their parents, not understanding who the men were from the company that would have mandatory meetings in their village, and their age-mates becoming sick and dying a common occurrence. It really drove home for me and lifted from the page, the heartache, sadness, and rage that the parents and other villagers felt as I read each page. It's a story of loss, but one of resistance.
The issue that I had with the story-telling was that it was so meandering and incredibly slow to read. I wanted to read the story and hear each character's experience, but the story would then change course and speak to something that felt almost irrelevant or one that would drag the story on. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it and felt that it had such a promise and heartbreakingly honest story.
This is the first novel by Imbolo Mbue that I have read and was incredibly excited to read, How Beautiful We Were, after reading numerous positive reviews for, Behold the Dreamers. Mbue writes from a lyrical and brutally honest perspective, forcing the reader to live the tale and feel the pain that the characters are experiencing.
The novel centers around a fictional South African village called Kosawa, where its inhabitants are literally being poisoned by the carelessness and disregard of an American oil company, Pexton. Pexton has overrun their rivers and their land with toxic waste and pipelines to extract the oil that lies beneath the village. The people cry out, bury their family members too frequently, and tend to their sick children as Pexton continuously tells them there isn't anything wrong with their land and threatens them from pursuing it any further.
The narratives throughout the book change between different villagers which allows for the reader to understand how each person is feeling throughout. I especially enjoyed hearing from the children as they discussed the whispers they hear from their parents, not understanding who the men were from the company that would have mandatory meetings in their village, and their age-mates becoming sick and dying a common occurrence. It really drove home for me and lifted from the page, the heartache, sadness, and rage that the parents and other villagers felt as I read each page. It's a story of loss, but one of resistance.
The issue that I had with the story-telling was that it was so meandering and incredibly slow to read. I wanted to read the story and hear each character's experience, but the story would then change course and speak to something that felt almost irrelevant or one that would drag the story on. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it and felt that it had such a promise and heartbreakingly honest story.
One of my favorites. Very informative about displaced peoples in a foreign country due to the oil industry of America. Very well written.
The most beautifully written story I’ve read!
Imbolo Mbue is so talented in how she effortlessly makes different perspectives speak so truly to a collective voice.
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