How Beautiful We Were

A Novel

By: Imbolo Mbue

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, JD Jackson, Allyson Johnson, Lisa Renee Pitts

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 best-selling author of Behold the Dreamers.

One of the 10 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.

©2020 Imbolo Mbue (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Sweeping and quietly devastating...How Beautiful We Were charts the ways repression, be it at the hands of a government or a corporation or a society, can turn the most basic human needs into radical and radicalizing acts.... Profoundly affecting." (The New York Times Book Review)

"What a stunningly beautiful writer Mbue is, and how lucky we are to have her stories in the world." (USA Today)

“It’s a heartbreaking and relevant story that seeps into your bones, quickly engulfs you and doesn’t let go.” (The Seattle Times)

Beautiful story, beautiful narration

Loved hearing the beautiful voices read this moving story. So wonderful to have different people read different parts. Loved it.

Great story, very moving!

The story made me think about the life I take for granted. The performance was excellent and the full cast made it feel like I was hearing the story of a village. A Story that is repeated over and over, in the news just today a wind energy farm disruption the Sami people.

This is a must have for your library

I couldn't stop listening. Understanding stories from the perspective of those who are oppressed is critical to understanding our shared history. I really suggest this title to all...it checks all the boxes.

Good but not great.

Good but not memorable. I preferred her first book. This was sort of predictable. I have to go now.

excellent writing and novel! narration whewwww

I know this is fiction about poor Africans and oil contamination and exploitation by wealthy Americas but this is occurring now all across the planet! Oil contamination just occurred in 2023 in USA (Ohio) and other spills in USA recently i.e. Keystone pipeline, Deepwater, Exxon Valdez etc)

The narration whewww!! MEH! if the writing is excellent but the narration suffers, the story suffers! this novel should be narrated by perhaps more African people or just people with non-American accents or Americans with solid acting skills! The narrators are excellent readers but the monotone, pitch, intonation and inflection really impact the audible version of the novel! If you can imagine a professor giving a lecture with no change in inflection, it would be very hard to get though a 2 hr class…that was this audible book.

A beautiful story, akin to the birth of America, but today

I am a fan of American history, especially our revolution and biographies of the founders, men and women of our country.
I also began a real journey of building and implementing sustainable medical systems in clinics in underserved communities. Most of that work took place in eight countries in Africa, from Benin and Uganda to Mozambique and Lesotho from 2009 to today. This story is fiction, but it is true. The people are fiction but are real. The government stealing a country’s mineral wealth is real.
Not everywhere. I served in many clinics that were military where no one got rich, the people received the best HIV care possible, at little or no cost.
But in The Children; I can only see the seeds of American Revolution. The anger that builds from foreign strength robbing a people of clean water and health.
The ties to issues in America with American Indians are so true. My company’s next target is the Canadien Arctic. To see if we can use what we built in Africa to prevent some of the issue of Kosawa happening to the Inuits and Dene when mining, drilling, and construction opens up. I can only hope. And dream.
But I have better resources than Austin. So in my 70s, yes I still have the strength to have anger, even with losing teeth :). My business partner wants her dream to be Thula’s dream. I hope we win this time. It might not save the globe, but it might save the Arctic peoples.

Heartbreaking

An all-too-familiar, fictionalised account of man's inhumanity to man. When greedy corporations and corrupt, evil governments -- and the "leaders" they shield -- have finally decimated this planet, I wonder where they think they're going to be able to spend their ill-gotten gains.

A great novel

Heartbreaking, mizmarizing fantastic and yet so real and true, a must read for sure

All the feels

Be prepared it’s gut-wrenching.
Beautifully written and performed. But, terribly upsetting! Humans are disappointing.

An amazing journey through storytelling.

This was a wonderful story that brought joy to my face and tears to my eyes. Excellent writing that made it hard to put it down.