Random HouseProduct DescriptionA compulsively readable debut novel about marriage immigration class race and the trapdoors in the American Dreamthe unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy
Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award?" A?New York Times?Notable Book?" Longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award " An ALA Notable Book
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY?
NPR?" The New York Times Book Review "?San Francisco Chronicle " The Guardian " St. Louis Post-Dispatch " Chicago Public Library " BookPage " Refinery29 " Kirkus Reviews?
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. In the fall of 2007 Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality discretion and loyaltyand Jende is eager to please. Clarks wife Cindy even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses summer home in the Hamptons. With these opportunities Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future.
However the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers fa?ades.
When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers the Jongas are desperate to keep Jendes jobeven as their marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice.
Praise for Behold the Dreamers
A debut novel by a young woman from Cameroon that illuminates the immigrant experience in America with the tenderhearted wisdom so lacking in our political discourse . . . Mbue is a bright and captivating storyteller.The Washington Post
A capacious big-hearted novel.The New York Times Book Review
??Behold the Dreamers???heart . . . belongs to the struggles and small triumphs of the Jongas?? which Mbue traces in clean?? quick-moving paragraphs.???Entertainment Weekly
??Mbue??s writing is warm and captivating.???People (book of the week)
??[Mbue??s] book isn??t the first work of fiction to grapple with the global financial crisis of 2007?2008?? but it??s surely one of the best. . . . It??s a novel that depicts a country both blessed and doomed?? on top of the world?? but always at risk of losing its balance. It is?? in other words?? quintessentially American.???NPR
??This story is one that needs to be told.???Bust?
??Behold the Dreamers challenges us all to c