The Globe and Mail Stephanie Nolen Published April 16, 2021
LAUREN LANCASTER/The New York Times News Service
In the home where Imbolo Mbue grew up, in Limbe, a coastal town in Cameroon, there was no television. The radio brought the news, and it was from the radio that Mbue followed the case of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Nigerian environmentalists who were confronting Shell Oil. The Dutch multinational had extracted millions of barrels of oil from their home in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta, poisoning the land and the water in the process. Nigeria’s military dictatorship had imprisoned Saro-Wiwa and eight more activists who helped lead the opposition; there was a global campaign, including pleas from the Vatican and the government of Canada, to free them. “I became very emotionally invested in it and I spent a lot of time praying that Ken Saro-Wiwa would be set free,” Mbue recalled recently. “And then one day I came back from school and I found out that he and his co-envir
Novel Approach: Corruption and resilience dominate How Beautiful We Were
TinaMarie Craven
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2of3 How Beautiful We Were is the latest novel by Imbolo Mbue.TinaMarie Craven / Hearst Connecticut MediaShow MoreShow Less
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“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” Steve Maraboli
During the past year, many of us have reflected on the importance of our homes, especially since we’ve been spending so much of our time in our homes during the pandemic. Our latest novel tells the story of a community of people fighting to stay in their homes after the living conditions have become increasingly detrimental due to pollution.
Behold the Dreamers was published. What was the inspiration? Why did you set it aside? What had changed when you returned to it? How did shifting the point of view with the focus on a rotating cast of children of the village change the story?
Imbolo Mbue: I did indeed begin writing the novel in 2002 it was the very first thing I started writing when I decided to experience what it was like to write. Of course, I didn’t know the first thing about writing a novel but I found the process entirely enjoyable even if my writing itself was a mess. I spent the next nine years writing the story, and didn’t put it aside until I got the inspiration to write something else what would later become
Book World: A familiar desecration made wrenchingly fresh
Ron Charles, The Washington Post
March 16, 2021
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By Imbolo Mbue
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In 2016, during a presidential campaign punctuated by racist alarms about immigration, Imbolo Mbue published her first novel about an African man struggling to become an American citizen. Informed by her own experience as an immigrant from Cameroon, Behold the Dreamers captured the hopes and frustrations of millions of people drawn to this country. Mbue s capacious sympathy and careful fidelity to the voices of her characters - from the extraordinarily rich to the precariously poor - made Behold the Dreamers one of the most illuminating and touching novels of the year. When it won the PEN/Faulkner prize, Mbue s success felt like a double celebration of the artistic talent of a young writer and the growing diversity of our literary canon.
West African villagers take on an American oil giant in new novel pri.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pri.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.