I was lucky enough to be approved to receive an ARC of this book by Canongate on Netgalley and it has to be one of the most moving books I’ve read in a long time.

It covers some really interesting topics, the most poignant being the destruction and ruin of a small African village as a result of a large American oil company to set up business there. In doing so, the company’s oil pipelines and drilling sites have ruined crops and poisoned the village’s water supply.

It’s a devastating tale of destruction and loss but one that incorporates selfishness and greed. The village is full of residents who are fuelled by emotion and anger, not just at Pexton (the American oil company) but at each other and as a result, no one knows the best action to take as the majority of villagers are driven by their own motives.

The book incorporates a range of different narratives and through these characters, we gain insight into different perspectives and how that shapes their lives and opinions. What was deeply moving for me was watching the children of the ‘Pexton generation’ grow up and retell their experiences of when Pexton first arrived on their soil.

It is an incredible story and journey to take yourself on and one I thoroughly enjoyed, however not an easy read and one that made me reflect on how awful it must be to have your life overturned by big corporations with big bank balances

*Many thanks to Imbolo Mbue, Canongate, and NetGalley for arc in exchange fo rmy honest review.*
A novel with many themes that are essential for understanding Africa: slavery, land exploitation, white man indifference to the plight of the indiginous communities, traditions and myths and many more. An astounding tale of villagers' flight for the right to retain dignity and their own ways of life.
Several voices tell their stories which present daily life, customs, moments of happiness and long periods of misery and helplesness when confronted with powers beyond their control.
A novel to remember!

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue is set in the fictional village of Koswa in Africa dealing with the death and destruction of their village in the hands of Pexton, an oil company. The oil spillages have infiltrated their drinking water and the land becomes completely infertile, causing untimely, tragic deaths in the village - particularly among children.

This book is told from multiple perspectives from Thula and her family, as well as highly effective, collective narratives from The Children. They discuss the impact this infiltration has had on their village. There is little hope: their country is ruled by a dictator. Pexton continues their destruction of Koswa. There is little choice but for the children of Koswa to fight against injustice throughout the decades. A fight that Thula attempts to lead despite the odds.

Oh man, this book is the epitome of heartbreaking. It is also the epitome of strength. Mbue is a powerful storyteller. The characters are written with such depth. There were some I connected more to than others. The one we get to know the most is Thula. We mainly see her through the eyes of everyone else. We see her grow from a girl into a fierce, determined woman.

I had found it quite difficult to get into in the beginning but once I got into it the story became incredibly gripping.
How Beautiful We Were may be a fictional book but it is one of many many realities too. The impact of climate change on countries such as Africa and its villages. The greediness of giant corporations. Capitalism & colonialism. It also explores the importance of community and standing up for yourself, which also stands to reality.

This is a slow-paced book but it’s definitely worthwhile.

Thank you to Canongate & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A small village in Africa, Kosowa is shaken when a large oil company is given permission by their government to drill on their land. As time passes, the crops begin to fail, the water becomes polluted, and the air becomes hard to breathe. How Beautiful We Were tells the story of Kosowa through the eyes of its residents, particularly Thula and her family and age-mates.

The story of Kosawa is beautifully told. The writing is gorgeous and evokes so much emotion when reading, and the mix of language as the story changes narrater is absolutely masterful. I adored hearing from the different points of view, people of all ages and genders within the village, which really made it a whole and complete story.

The story matter is incredibly hard hitting, it opened my eyes to things that happen in the world that I had very little knowledge of. It made me want to read more, learn more, and really absorb more real stories of the subject matter so that I could better appreciate this fictional novel.

I do have one tiny gripe - I am the kind of person that loves a fast paced novel, and this is the opposite. Not only is it slow-paced, but the subject matter makes it hard to read, which slowed me down a lot. Now, and this is absolutely personal preference, I do think this affected my enjoyment of the book. I totally understand that this story needed to be told in a certain way, and I appreciated it for what it was, but I did sometimes have to struggle through because of the pacing. I also think it is a little jumpy in places, and this was a little hard to follow until I got the timeline straight in my head.

Nevertheless, this is a fantastic novel, and one I'll be recommending to so many people. 4.5 stars.

Thank you to Imbolo Mbue, Canongate, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I simultaneously loved and hated this book. The writing and storytelling was incredible, but the contents of the book were very frustrating and sad. Definitely and important read because the issues described in this book are literally happening in the world right now.

Synopsis: Children have been dying in the small village of Kosowa ever since an American oil company set up on their land. Pipeline spills have intoxicated the drinking water but the country’s corrupt government are not keeping their promises of a clean up.

Review: I had just finished watching the Chernobyl drama and new documentary when I started this book which made reading about a fictional village being poisoned feel very real. However, the stark difference is that Chernobyl was evacuated, Kosowa was not. It is a slow paced read but the change in narrators keeps it going, well that and the building passion in the villagers to fight for their land. Thula, the protagonist, is a completely different person by the end of the book which could be because she is the only person who left to go to America, broadening her knowledge of activism and igniting fire in her belly to save her home despite the government saying: “what can one angry woman do?”

How Beautiful We Were is award-winning Cameroonian-American author Imbolo Mbue's second novel set in a fictional African town where people are living in fear of the environmental devastation brought by a nearby American oil company which has made the surrounding farmland infertile and water toxic. It follows a generation of children and the family of one who grows up to become a revolutionary, fighting back against the environmental exploitation of the oil company. Kosawa, a fictional rural village on the coast of West Africa, has suffered so many tragedies over the years that echo down through the generations in the families that have lived there for centuries. Through protagonist Thula Nangi and those in the village, we are told of the immense suffering that has stalked them through the times. From their ancestors being abducted and sold into slavery in some far-away place to their manipulation and subjugation at the hands of corrupt dictators. From the abject poverty in which they live, or more accurately survive, primitive hand-to-mouth conditions to capitalistic multinational corporations who take the lands precious natural resources while leaving the area in upheaval and finally their lack of voice; speaking up through the years has never amounted to anything other than empty baseless promises that are meant to appease but nothing actually changes. Now, the year is 1980 and American oil company Pexton drills without surveillance for oil. Leaking pipelines devastate the fields and children are becoming sick or have already perished "from the poison in the water and the poison in the air and the poisoned food growing from the land that lost its purity the day Pexton came drilling.”

All the efforts made so far by the villagers to seek resolution in the form of repairs or reparation have been greeted with apathy by the company and brutality by the dictatorship. Promises to protect the village are never kept, and the local government is completely in the pocket of the Americans. But then the residents of Kosawa decide to fight back. In October, Pexton sends a delegation to Kosawa to try and placate residents and village lunatic, Konga, takes matters into his own hands by gatecrashing a meeting and stealing the oil representatives' car keys before holding both them and the corrupt head of the village hostage. The rest of the village rises up believing they must join Konga. And so begins a long, desperate struggle between a small farming community and the seemingly united forces of the government and American industry. This is a captivating, deeply compelling and poignant novel about the exploitation of people and the environment by multinationals and corrupt governments. From the villagers' perspective, and revolutionary Thula a wise-beyond-her-years ten-year-old, Imbolo Mbue explains what happens when a community revolts against the ruthless exploitation by greedy multinationals. It is moving and topical, richly-described and urgent. Full of empathy and compassion, it explores themes with far-teaching consequences such as capitalism, colonialism, Western corporate greed and exploitation of natural resources by a foreign entity. I was enthralled, disturbed and inspired and the stunning acuity of the writing worked superbly; this is a mournful, violent and suspenseful tale in which optimism and despair come together in an unparalleled way. Highly recommended.

The story is told from multiple points of view, including a group of children, ‘age-mates’ born in the same year, who act rather like the Chorus in a Greek play. This structure allows the reader to see the story from a number of different perspectives, reflecting the varying experiences and attitudes of young and old, male and female. It also gave a sense of the oral storytelling tradition.

I was less a fan of the frequently shifting timelines meaning that the story goes back and forth in time. One moment a character is dead, the next moment they are still in prison. I confess I found this both confusing and distracting. I was grateful when I reached the section told from the point of view of Thula’s grandmother, Yaya, not just because it revealed the history of the injustices visited on the people of Kosawa over many generations – slavery, forced labour on rubber plantations, the destruction of their land by the construction of oil pipelines – but because it was narrated in a largely linear fashion, placing into some order the events featured in previous sections.

The book conveys a strong sense of the traditional beliefs and customs that form the backbone of life in the village. How its inhabitants see themselves as different from, even distrustful of, those who live in the towns; tribal and family ties being more important than nationality. The villagers of Kosawa gain strength from their belief that the spirits of their ancestors guide and protect them, as represented in the village anthem: “Sons of the leopard, daughters of the leopard, beware all who dare wrong us, never will our roar be silenced.”

The reader learns about what is a strongly patriarchal society, in which women’s role is largely confined to cooking, cleaning and child-rearing and women who lose their husbands are unable to remarry. ‘You can be alone, the men say to us. You’re a woman, you’re built to endure.’ However, it’s also a community that comes together to mark events such as births, the passage into manhood, marriages and deaths. Sadly, the village witnesses many of the latter.

The spirit of resistance is most clearly represented by Thula who is described as having ever since the day she was born ‘wanted what she wanted’. I’m always drawn to characters who demonstrate a love of books and reading so it’s no surprise I warmed to Thula for whom, as her mother Sahel observes, books become ‘her pillow and her blanket, her plate of food and the water that quenched her thirst’. Thula’s education takes her away, first from her village, and then from her country to America. However, Kosawa and its plight remains forever in her thoughts, and in her heart. She becomes both an enabler and catalyst for action against the oil company, Pexton, and later a figurehead for much wider change.

One of the last sections of the book, narrated from the point of view of Thula’s brother, Juba, was less compelling than I’d hoped. For me, it got rather bogged down in the details of negotiations, court cases and preparations for the campaign led by Thula. It also included a brief return to the back and forth in time that I’ve mentioned earlier, and there were some parts I felt were redundant.

Although I may have had some reservations about the structure and pace of the book, I had no doubts about the quality of the writing. If you can get past what, for me, was the book’s rather convoluted structure – and I’m conscious other readers may find it imaginative rather than distracting – How Beautiful We Were is a powerful story about the fight against injustice, corruption and environmental destruction.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about the struggles a small fictional African village faces in its fight against a powerful American oil company who's oil extraction on their land leads to the destruction of their ecosystem. This sounds like a simple story of the weak verse the strong, but is much more that that. It's a story of Western exploitation, post-colonialism dictatorial regime, upholding traditional values and society structures and the power of education for both males and females.

Told from multiple points of views, these view point build to tell the story of how Thula becomes a revolutionary, sacrificing everything to save her people and her village. It's these multiple points of view and the layering bit by bit to tell the whole that makes this such a captivating story.

I liked it very much. I also like the fact that it brought up a topic not obviously currently at the forefront of our consciousness, whist still being very apt and humanising the effect our reliance on fossil fuels has on individuals.

I have not read Mbue's debut, but I am really excited to go back to it after finishing How Beautiful We Were. This novel explores the destiny of a small African village after an American oil company takes their land to extract oil and we largely focus on Thula, as a central figure, that grows up to be a revolutionary. However, what Mbue cleverly does is that she does not give us Thula's perspective, but instead we get alternating chapters of The Children – Thula's age-mates, and chapters from different members of Thula's family. The Children as a narrator was a very interesting stylistic choice, because we get their perspective as both children and grown ups, and it was compelling way to show the destiny of the village but also how its residents perceive the events that have befallen the village. I think this was particularly interesting at the beginning, when they are still children, but it was an intriguing thing to see Thula through their eyes throughout. They serve as this youthful, revolutionary force that decides to fight back and it's a great contrast to some of the older people of the village, who have not given up per say, but have a less idealistic view of how the world works.
The chapters from some of the members of Thula's family were also really interesting, and I have to say that the POVs of her mother and grandmother were my favorite, and I would have loved to see the whole book from their perspective. They were so emotionally charged, and I think a great balance of discussing the larger scope of the narrative and the themes of the novel, but while also being very human and focusing on the personal, day to day struggles of these women. Actually, one of my qualms with the novel is precisely the fact that I felt that this was largely emotionally dull or devoid in some places, and I wish that all of this book was as brilliant as some of its singular chapters. But I definitely feel like the choice of the characters to tell the story was a good one, especially since this book covers decades and we get crucial characters (for the plot) at crucial points in the narrative, which was quite engaging. 

The book explores larger themes of colonialism and capitalism in a really successful way in my opinion, but also manages to make the perseverance and the fight of the people of Kosawa the central driving force of the novel. The heart of this story is the feeling of community, and I particularly enjoyed the representations of Thula's struggles. She leaves Kosawa to study in America, but feels the pull of her ancestral land at all times. Thula leaves in order to get education that could help her people, and I think that the sacrifices she had to make and her own thoughts about the struggle of her people were really well done. 

While I definitely understood the choices that were made to tell this story and I appreciated them as narrative tools, they were not always successful for me personally. Like I said, I felt emotionally detached from the characters at times and I really would have loved this to be told from the point of view of the women of Thula's family. My other grievance with this novel is that I felt it was unfocused at times, and it lost a bit of steam in the second half. I do wish that this was a bit more tighter in terms of the storytelling, but overall, these qualms I had did not largely impact a wonderful reading experience that I had with this novel. 

This was a really wonderful novel, that explores the themes of colonialism and the fight of a small community for itself and for its land, and I am so so glad I picked it up. While I did have some issues with it, I think it's a really important story, and one I would wholeheartedly recommend. I would also gladly pick up anything else Mbue writes!

How Beautiful We Were is a novel about an African village that is exploited by an American oil company. The story follows a member of the village, Thula, from childhood to adulthood, as she takes a stand against the company and the sickness and death that it brings to her village.

The prose in this book is beautiful. It is an emotional, painful exploration of clashing cultures, colonialism, and the culture, beliefs and superstitions of the villagers, the government, and the American company. This book is filled with atmosphere and emotion, with a slow moving, slightly meandering plot. The plot at times feels a little sparce, I think possibly because of the scale of the story. The switching perspectives between individual characters and the village children as a collective is interesting. I don't think I've read a novel with a group as a single narrator before. I did find that I didn't always connect to the characters. I sometimes felt like I was being kept at a distance, or that I didn't get enough time with each person before the point of view changed.

My favourite character was Sahel, Thula's mother, and I liked the chapter from her perspective the best. Her point of view really interested me, her decisions and opinions, and her experiences with grief, desire and parenting.

I read this book in two days - the writing is beautiful and that extremely rare kind that doesn't dumb down for the assumed intelligence of the reader. I found it brilliant and it drew me in to the view points, the factions and the traditions of this fictional African village, Kosawa.

The plot is very well done - the twists and turns mirror the frustrations of the residents and the flexible attitude to plotting time across the novel, some times fast, sometimes slow, works very well.

That said, a lot of this was about the greed and irresponsibility of massive corporations, particularly those who set up shop in financially poorer areas. The narrative surrounding it all felt very on the nose, very preachy. If you read this at a slower pace, I'm not sure you would feel drawn into it as much as you felt lectured.

I'm really loving African fiction, and this book promised to explore an aspect that I hadn't read before - that of environmental issues and the damages big foreign corporations can wreck on the lands and people they exploit for profit.

This is the story of a fictional African country under a dictatorship, and specifically a village of that country which is suffering the impact of living cheek-by-jowl to an oil mining site. The story opens in the 1980's, where the damage from the oil drilling is already being sharply felt by the village - crops are failing, the river is full of toxic waste and children are dying from drinking the poisoned water supply. The people are visited by representatives of the American energy company responsible for the site, only to receive empty promises, false reassurances and no change. We follow this village - in particular one family, the daughter of that family and the generation who were children at the start of the story - through the following decades as they try to rise up and fight for their land, their health and their heritage.

This book takes you completely from where you are, right into the heart of this vibrant village. Tied closely to one another and their ancestry, the people have a rich culture and strong sense of community. It is devastating to see the effects of the big multinational and the corrupt government on this place and its people. Although a fictional story and location, you can never stop reminding yourself that this is not a fictional scenario. As the people, and particularly Thula (the daughter of the focal family) and her passionate peers, fight for their lives, you despair at their smallness in the face of all that's against them. As I followed their efforts through the years, it was hard to feel any optimism for them, or for anyone in the world facing a similar battle.

The writing in this book is strong, and every character felt real - even "the children" who are an ensemble narrator. But their plight and the length of time this book covered did make this an exhausting read, and there are some truly sad and traumatic points in this story. I thought Thula was an incredible character and I loved that it was a woman at the front of this fight, but what she gave for it made me even more sad. This is not a light or entertaining read, but a rich and important one.

A devastating wonderful book. It highlights how small towns and villages have been ruined but the big companies. The destruction and devastating effects these changes can have on a community is immense.

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

When an American oil company, Pexton set up a pipeline and drilling next to the fictional African village of Kosawa, children begin to die from the toxic well water. The pipeline spills and gas flares render their land infertile, the air polluted and water unpotable. When it appears that their own government has sold their lives for the price of oil, the villagers decide that they must take action.

Told through a variety of voices in the village, the children, Thula and her family; the story spans 40 years of protest, direct action and struggle to reclaim their land, their lives and the lives of their children.

Mbue shows the resilience of the human spirit, shines a light on the lengths that the fossil fuel industry will go to feed the habits of the oil consuming western world and the human cost of that addiction.

Written with power and conviction, this stunning book crept up on me slowly and left me overcome with grief and re-ignited a fury to act on behalf of the planet and all of its inhabitants.

Our fossil fuel habits have caused millions of deaths worldwide: people living in poverty and people of colour have been and will continue to be disproportionately affected by ecological breakdown and the harmful effects of “progress” or “civilisation”.

The fossil fuel industry has been thwarting efforts to save our planet for decades. Decades. In the 1970’s ExxonMobil employed top scientists to research the effects of fossil fuel use. The findings showed that the effects of continued burning of fossil fuels would be ‘catastrophic’, predicting that it would increase the temperature of the planet by 2 to 3 degrees. The oil companies response was to discredit the scientists, deny climate change and push the responsibility onto individuals.

When 70% of the world’s carbon emissions come from 80 companies it cannot be simply an individual’s responsibility to reduce emissions by reusing shopping bags, eating less meat and taking public transport. Solving the climate crisis requires collective action and strong policy change from governments.

We have time and we have power, but we need to act with urgency and agency.

Mbue's debut novel Behold the Dreamers was brilliant and one of my favorites. I was anticipating this new book and was thrilled to receive an advanced copy. While it's written just as beautifully as Dreamers, I struggled to connect with the characters or the narrative. I felt a chasm between the voices telling the stories and the reader. The different perspectives were a challenge, while the time shifting throughout was equally unsettling. Because the same story might be told from the POV of multiple characters, the book is very long and often felt like it was dragging. I was eager to embrace this new book of Mbue's but it just didn't work for me. She is a gifted writer but I think this work needed some editing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

The story of a small African village against a large oil company. The narrative told through various characters, though beautiful, was often found lengthy and monotonous.

This novel gives a unique and raw insight into the struggle of a small African village with an American oil company and the destruction of their once beautiful land. Written from the point of view of different members of the village, though focused around the journey of Thula in her journey from being a girl to becoming a woman and her fight against the oil company and her own government.
There are some breath-taking and heart-wrenching descriptions, which meant I became truly invested in the characters and their fight.
This being said, I felt that the novel was too long. It took me ages to finish, as I didn't find I was compelled to sit and read it for long, so I would read a few pages between other books. I love the descriptions and journeys of the characters, but at times I felt it got a bit repetitive and disjointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a book that I very much requested in the spur of the moment in a requesting binge and I wasn't 100% sure I'd get around to it before publication date, but my god am I glad that I did. Imbolo Mbue has to be one of the most talented authors I've ever had the pleasure of reading from. This book was incredibly poetic and beautiful, whilst telling this dreadful story of colonialism, capitalism and profiteering. I'm definitely going to do myself a favour and check out Imbolo's debut novel, and keep my eyes peeled for what they decide to write next.

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue is a powerful book that tells the story of events in a small African village when an American oil company gains mining rights for the area, strikes oil and in the process of extracting and exporting it causes terrible environmental destruction. Leaking pipelines contaminate the soil so crops no longer grow, water pollution seems to be making the children of the village ill and neither the company nor the corrupt government are willing to do anything more about it than make vague promises.
The story is told using multiple narratives, from Thula a young girl growing up in the village who shows promise and is sent to school in America, to the group of children who were her "age mates", to various members of Thula's family. In this way the author is able to show how the story plays out and the damage harms multiple generations , and how desperation and determination can lead to great acts of bravery but also to great tragedy. I was completely swept away by the author, taken to a world so vastly different to anything I know. I was captivated by the characters and completely engrossed by the relationships between them. This was my first experience with this author, but based on how much I loved this book I am keen to read more of her work. It is rare to find a book which sparks as much emotion as this one did, and I found myself thinking about it long after I had finished the last page.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.