How Beautiful We Were

<p><b>A PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST</b><br><b><br>'Sweeping and quietly devastating' <i>New York Times</i></b><br><b>'A David and Goliath story for our times' <i>O, the Oprah Magazine</i></b><br><br>Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, this is the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean-up and financial reparations are made - and broken. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. But it will come at a steep price - one which generation after generation will have to pay.<br><br><i>How Beautiful We Were</i> 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 onto its ancestral land and a young woman's willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people's freedom.</p> <p><b>A PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST</b><br><b><br>'Sweeping and quietly devastating' <i>New York Times</i></b><br><b>'A David and Goliath story for our times' <i>O, the Oprah Magazine</i></b><br><br>Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, this is the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean-up and financial reparations are made - and broken. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. But it will come at a steep price - one which generation after generation will have to pay.<br><br><i>How Beautiful We Were</i> 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 onto its ancestral land and a young woman's willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people's freedom.</p>