How Beautiful We Were, for some time.
She began writing it 17 years ago, long before her debut,
Behold the Dreamers, sold to Random House US for a seven-figure advance. She returned to it in 2016, when the US presidential election, the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and other alarming news consumed each day.
“I just hid in the story. It brought me so much peace and solace,” Mbue says in an interview. “There were months when I didn’t read the news, didn’t watch any TV. I told my friends, please don’t tell me about what is going on. Everything that I was feeling – the pain, the confusion, the frustration about the state of the country – I looked for ways to channel it so that I could honestly tell the story.”
Big Read novel mirrors real life rebuilding post pandemic
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After a Friend Dies, a Professor Helps to Finish Her Book
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