How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue: A review

As I was reading this book, something kept niggling in the back of my mind. It reminded me of something else I had read, but I couldn't quite bring it forward. But finally, it came to me; it was The Constant Gardener by John le Carré . That book detailed the exploitation of an African country and its population by a pharmaceutical company. This present book details exploitation by an oil company. Different kinds of companies but the lack of regard for humanity was something I found quite similar. The country in this book is never actually named. The author was born in Cameroon and grew up in a coastal town in that country but later went to college in the United States and is now an American citizen living in New York. Though she doesn't name the country, the fictional village she writes about is called Kosawa. In that village lives a young girl named Thula and her family. It is through Thula that we experience the traumatic events affecting her village. An American oil com...