It was love at first chapter. Enchantment at first page. But really, it was fascination since the very first sentence. “We should have known the end was near.”

Imbolo Mbue’s book How Beautiful We Were is told by a group of children born the same year and three generations of the Nangi family living in a fictional place in a fictional West African country. It’s a story about a poor village named Kosawa and also a rich American oil company called Pexton. It’s a story about a beautiful place deep in the African forest and also western greed and corruption. About dirty water, oil spills, polluted air, contaminated soil and death, and also hope, belief and fight for what we deserve.

The author of the bestseller Behold the Dreamers created the most enchanting and heartbreaking fictional world filled with people and struggles so real that it is hard to believe their huts did not once stand in the African forest. Starting in 1980 and going all the way to the present day, the book touches on many of the social issues of our generation—lasting effects of colonialism, pollution, exploitation, poverty and the lack of government accountability, just to name a few.

The use of the first-person plural in many parts of the book highlights the collective experience—the “we” versus “them”—and unifies the tribe in ways no other kind of narration possibly could. Their helplessness and sorrow are shared, their voices a unison.

If there is one flaw, it would be the occasionally disjointed plot—time-jumps from the past to the present, skipping events just to come back to them later.

But Mbue’s beautiful writing makes it easy to forgive. The characters’ pain is tangible through her words, their courage admirable, the injustice done to them upsetting.

How Beautiful We Were is a breath of saddening fresh air. A tale of horrifying authenticity from a gifted author. Brutally honest visit to our hearts, for how far would you go for love.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
ARC | NetGalley | Random House