Imbolo Mbue Knihy

Kamerunská spisovatelka Imbolo Mbue podepsala v roce 2014 na Frankfurtském knižním veletrhu s nakladatelstvím Random House sedmimístnou smlouvu na svou prvotinu. Tento veletrh je jedním z největších na světě a její kniha byla jednou ze dvou, na které byly podepsány významné smlouvy pro nadějné autory. Román, plánovaný na jaro 2016, patří do imigrantské literatury, která se v Americe začíná prosazovat. Děj se odehrává v roce 2007 v New York City a zaměřuje se na západoafrického imigranta, jehož jméno je v titulu. Ten získává práci jako řidič u vysoce postaveného pracovníka banky Lehman Brothers. Džendeho rodina se brzy sblíží s rodinou jeho zaměstnavatele, přičemž Džendeho manželku zaměstná jeho žena. Obě rodiny se ocitají v chaosu po krachu banky v roce 2008. Dle Davia Ebershoffa z Random House je kniha napsána "s inteligencí, empatií a talentem". Agentka Susan Golombová, která smlouvu podepsala, chválí postavy jako "nejkrásnější a nejsvěžejší" v nedávné beletrii a zdůrazňuje Mbue schopnost vystihnout jejich optimismus, touhy a zklamání. Golombová věří, že Mbue se stane součástí nové generace afrických autorů, která byla právě objevena.

2007. Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. Working as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers, he displays the punctuality, discretion, and loyalty that Edwards demands. Neni's temporary work at the Edwardses' summer home in the Hamptons means a brighter future--until Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers' façades. As the financial world threatens to collapse, the Jongas become desperate. And as their marriage threatens to fall apart, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice

A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers."A novel with the richness and power of a great contemporary fable, and a heroine for our time."--Sigrid Nunez, author of The Friend, winner of the National Book Award We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue's powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made--and ignored. The country's government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price. Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a 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 ghost 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