Behold the Dreamers (Mbue) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
In the near decade since the onset of the Great Recession, few works of fiction have examined what those years felt like for everyday people, how so many continued to hope and plan and love amid pervasive uncertainty. Enter Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, a Cameroonian American who situates her characters of US shores just as prosperity is beginning to seem like a thing of the past.... Behold the Dreamers challenges us all to consider what it takes to make us genuinely content, and how long is too long to live with our dreams deferred.
O Magazine
 

A revelation.... Mbue has written a clever morality tale that never preaches but instead teaches us the power of integrity.
Essence
 

Gripping and beautifully told.
Good Housekeeping


Imbolo Mbue’s masterful debut about an immigrant family struggling to obtain the elusive American Dream in Harlem will have you feeling for each character from the moment you crack it open.
In Style
 

This story is one that needs to be told.
Bust


[T]he book’s unexpected ending—and its sharp-eyed focus on issues of immigration, race, and class—speak to a sad truth in today’s cutthroat world: the American dream isn’t what it seems.
Publishers Weekly


Impeccably written, socially informed, in development by Sony Pictures, and an exemplar of the tremendous new writing emerging from Africa, Cameroon-born Mbue's big debut opens in 2007 New York.
Library Journal


At once a sad indictment of the American dream and a gorgeous testament to the enduring bonds of family, Mbue’s powerful first novel will grip and move you right up to its heartfelt ending.
Shelf Awareness


(Starred review.) The American dream is put to the test by the economic disaster of 2007....  [T]he magnitude of the catastrophe makes itself clear only slowly.... Realistic, tragic, and still remarkably kind to all its characters, this is a special book.
Kirkus Reviews