Imbolo Mbue

About

Imbolo Mbue is a Cameroonian American novelist known for her insightful fiction exploring immigration, identity, class, race, and the pursuit of the American Dream. Born and raised in Limbe, Cameroon, she later moved to the United States to pursue higher education and settled in New York. Her debut novel, Behold the Dreamers (2016), follows a Cameroonian immigrant family and their wealthy American employers during the 2008 financial crisis, examining economic inequality and the fragile promises of success. The novel received widespread acclaim and won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2017. Her second novel, How Beautiful We Were (2021), explores environmental destruction and resistance in a fictional African village affected by an American oil company. Through compelling characters and socially conscious storytelling, Mbue examines power, belonging, and the human cost of global inequality.