Often, while visiting our children in Bézam, or America, or Europe, we sit on the couch, looking at the television but not seeing it. We’re there, but we’re not there. We’re somewhere else, thinking of Kosawa, thinking of Thula. We’re wondering if Thula would still be fighting if she were alive. It’s at such moments that the children of our children come to us and say, please, Yaya, please, Big Papa, tell us a story.
For my beautiful, beautiful children
Acknowledgments
My editor, the incomparable Andy Ward, and my late publisher, Susan Kamil (I miss you so much), both believed I could tell this story; they nurtured me and nudged me, never once allowing me to indulge in self-doubt. I also thank Andy’s assistants, Chayenne Skeete and Marie Pantojan, and the brilliant team of Rachel Rokicki, Melissa Sanford, Katie Tull, Taylor Noel, Avideh Bashirrad, and Barbara Fillon for their hard work and dedication. Profound gratitude to my literary agent, Susan Golomb, and my speaking agent, Christie Hinrichs, both of whom represent me with utmost passion and vigor. My former editor, David Ebershoff, is the greatest mentor any writer could ask for, and I thank him for his kindness. Much gratitude to my production editor, Steve Messina, and my copyeditor, Terry Zaroff-Evans, who both did an outstanding job. Jaya Miceli designed another superb book cover and I thank her.
My friends Howard Shaw, Lloyd Cheu and Douglas Mintz, Mark Salzman, Warren Goldstein, Zadie Smith, and Christina Baker Kline all read full or partial drafts of my manuscript—this story wouldn’t be what it is without their dazzling critiques and I am indebted to them. The same goes for my countryman and fellow Anglophone Cameroonian writer Dibussi Tande, who, along with Joyce Ashuntantang, has been an incredible champion of my work. Many thanks also to Fiammetta Rocco for giving me advice when I needed it. For two summers, Mary Haft gave my family and me a lovely cottage in Nantucket where I could work near the ocean and I thank her for her generosity. I also thank Greyson Bryan and Bob Kohn for helping me understand elements of American corporate law. And huge thanks to my German team (Mona Lang, Eva Betzwieser, Maria Hummitzsch) et mon équipe française (Caroline Ast, Diane Du Perier, tout le monde à Belfond).
Finishing this novel was grueling and I am eternally grateful to my spiritual counselor and confidant, Rick Weaver, for his wisdom and wit, and for reminding me of the truth about who I am. My thanks also to Donna Schaper of Judson Memorial Church, Justin Epstein of the Unity Center of New York City, and Father Frank Desiderio of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle for the safe spaces they gave me to worship in.
Year after year, my wonderful friends have never asked me to be anything but what I am—what greater gift can one human give another? I thank them for making me laugh, for traveling to be with me because I needed them, for distracting me from my writing with endless text messages.
When I was a child, my mother sent me to live with my aunt, a decision I was not thrilled about, but one that set me on this path, for it was in my aunt’s house that I discovered literature. I thank my mother for her love and bravery, and I thank my aunt for welcoming me, and for making me go to Bethel Baptist Church, Kumba—it was the teachings I received there that pushed me to start questioning the world, and it was those same teachings that led me to become the person of faith I am today. I am deeply grateful, also, to all my relatives, by blood and by marriage, who have played roles big and small in my life and who have shown me many kindnesses. I am especially thankful to my cousins who, on my last visit to my hometown, reminded me with their affection that no matter how far I travel, my umbilical cord will remain buried in Limbe, in Cameroon, in Africa.
And my marvel of a husband. And my breathtaking children. To you, I say: thank you, thank you, thank you. For your love and a home that overflows with joy. For dance parties and countless other reasons to take a break from writing. For coming with me on this journey and cheering me on to stay the course, so that at the end of each day, when I lie down to sleep, I may do so to the words: Well done, good and faithful servant.
By Imbolo Mbue
Behold the Dreamers
How Beautiful We Were
About the Author
Imbolo Mbue is the author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. The novel has been translated into eleven languages, adapted into an opera and a stage play, and optioned for a miniseries. A native of Limbe, Cameroon, Mbue lives in New York.
imbolombue.com
Facebook.com/imbolombue
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.
