01952nam a2200265 i 4500003000400000005001700004008004100021020003900062040002500101082001400126100002700140245005500167264003700222264001100259300002300270336002100293337002500314338002300339520117900362650003101541650002601572650004101598650002601639651002101665OSt20230105170315.0230105t20222021nyu    gr     000 f eng d  a9780593132449qpaperbackcRM 52.95  aPPAKbengcPPAKerda04a813.62231 aMbue, Imbolo,eauthor.10aHOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE : bA NOVEL / cImbolo Mbue. 1aNew York : bRandom House,c2022 4c©2021  a364pages ; c21 cm  atext2rdacontent  aunmediated2rdamedia  avolume2rdacarrier  a"'We should have known the end was near.' So begins Imbolo Mbue's exquisite and devastating novel How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by a large and powerful American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean up and financial reparations to the villagers are made--and ignored. The country's government, led by a corrupt, brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interest. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight the American corporation. Doing so will come at a steep price. Told through multiple perspectives and centered around a fierce young 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 ghosts 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." -- cProvided by publisher10aVillageszAfrica vFiction 0aOil spills vFiction  0aEnvironmental degradation vFiction  0aCorporationsvFiction 0aAfrica vFiction