How Beautiful We Were

Village. In her novel titled, How Beautiful We Were, Imbolo Mbue places readers in Kosawa, a fictional African village where life has turned sour after an American oil company ravaged the environment. A dictator leads the country’s government, and the pleas of the villagers for reparations and restoration of the land have been ignored for decades. Protagonist Thula left Kosawa for school in New York City, and her mission in life becomes justice for the people of Kosawa. Mbue’s prose is finely written, the characters complex and interesting, and the setting is described with care. Readers will come to care about the village and the people who live there, and root for Thula while knowing her mission’s success remains unlikely. Rating: Five-star (I love it) Click here to purchase How Beautiful We Were from amazon.com.