Behold the Dreamers
Book description
A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream—the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy
New York Times Bestseller • Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award •…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Behold the Dreamers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I love poignant, well-told stories about topics I can identify with. I come from immigrants who believed in the American Dream. Don’t many of us?
This is the story of a couple from Cameroon who moved to New York City, hoping for a better life. As the book begins, Jende is preparing for a job interview, dressed in his first suit ever, holding his first resume, and heading for Lehman Brothers, where he’ll meet Clark Edwards, executive, in a highrise with a view of Manhattan.
Cultures are clashing, and I’m holding my breath and worried about Jende. Will Clark be…
Behold the Dreamers follows Cameroonian immigrants Jende and Neni Jonga as they build their lives in New York City. We see the many cities within the city through Jende and Neni's home in Harlem, their work for a family in the Upper East Side and the Hamptons, their friends in the Bronx, and Jende's boss' career on Wall Street. Mbue explores home, belonging, family, and identity as it warps or stays the same across racial, national, and economic divides. This human book is joyful and depressing and universal and intimate and personal and political.
From Addison's list on New York City past to present.
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