How Beautiful We Were: A Novel
架空のアフリカの村が外部の資源採掘企業と対峙する物語。環境破壊、権力構造、世代間の葛藤を通じて政治とコミュニティの変容を描く。
作品情報
資源採掘による破壊に村が立ち向かう。
架空のアフリカの村が外部の資源採掘企業と対峙する物語。環境破壊、権力構造、世代間の葛藤を通じて政治とコミュニティの変容を描く。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Random House
- 発売日
- 2021-03-09
- ページ数
- 384ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 16 x 3.05 x 24.13 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780593132425
- ISBN-10
- 0593132424
- 価格
- 4685 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Historical
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 . ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, People • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, The Christian Science Monitor, Marie Claire , Ms. magazine, BookPage, Kirkus Reviews “Mbue reaches for the moon and, by the novel’s end, has it firmly held in her hand.”—NPR 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.
Imbolo Mbue is the author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Blue Metropolis Words to Change Prize and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Named a notable book of the year by The New York Times and The Washington Post and a best book of the year by close to a dozen publications, the novel has been translated into eleven languages, adapted into an opera and a stage play, and optioned for a movie. A native of Limbe, Cameroon, and a graduate of Rutgers and Columbia Universities, Mbue lives in New York City.
レビュー
-
what a storytelling
Beautiful articulation of modern and traditional, global and local, hope and tragedy.
-
Great book!!!!
Great book. Must read. 10/10
-
Liked her second book better
OK, the reprint quality is bad, pages are thick and hard to adjust while reading. The storyline is very slow and repetitive. I bought this because I absolutely loved Behold The Dreamers (oh just lovely), but I am not at all impressed by this book.
-
interesting perspective re exploitation of third world countries
I read this book as it was required reading for my granddaughter to enter the university of her choice and it was something we can share
-
Bitter Tears Arising from Oil Exploitation
This book is the story of the traditional animists people of Kosawa a fictional village in Africa. Their land has been given to an American oil company called Pexton by His Excellency, the cruel dictator of the unnamed country where they live. They continue living on their land, but oil spills, chemical spills, and accidents ruin the soil, kill their crops, and kills their children. They suffer terribly but at first, they just try to plead with Pexton but as things get worse, they begin protesting and eventually they take more forceful action. His Excellencies soldiers respond with extreme cruelty and massacres. News reports in western media about the situation are called fake news by His Excellency and his government. Their situation seems hopeless but Thula the daughter of Sahel who is an educated woman organize an uprising. Over 2-3 generations we follow the lives of the villagers of whom several act as narrators for the story including Bongo, Sahel, Thula, Yaya, Juba and the children. We see the events through their eyes. There are also letters from some of them which carry the narrative. You really get to know the main characters well and you empathize and care for them. I felt like I knew them, their good sides and their weaknesses. In other words, the character development was excellent. The villagers were often superstitious. However, not only did that element add authenticity, there are a lot of superstitions here in the west that’s widely accepted, such as astrology and homeopathy. Imbolo Imbue is a great author and she is a great storyteller who writes beautiful lyrical prose filled with emotion. Even though this is a fictional story it is inspired by real events that the author witnessed in her native country. It became obvious to me that much of what she was writing about was experienced. The book was sad, many people died, often cruel deaths, and there were torture, rapes, and children dying. On the other hand, the book was also hopeful, and the action was fast paced and suspenseful. It was a mesmerizing and perhaps a shocking story. In summary, this book is captivating, emotive and beautifully written. It tells a gripping and authentic story despite being fiction. It feels real and it opens your eyes to the struggles of victims of oil exploitation. I loved this book and I highly recommend it.
-
Everyone needs to read this
Honestly could not recommend this book more. Beautiful story
関連する文学賞
- PEN/Faulkner賞（フィクション部門） 第42回（2022年） ・Nominee