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 • 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 loyalty-and Jende is eager to please. Clark's 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' façades. When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of
Lehman Brothers the Jongas are desperate to keep Jende's job-even 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 consider
what it takes to make us genuinely content and how long is too long to live with our dreams
deferred."-O: The Oprah Magazine "[A] beautiful empathetic novel."-The Boston Globe "A
witty compassionate swiftly paced novel that takes on race immigration family and the
dangers of capitalist excess."-St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Mbue [is] a deft often lyrical
observer. . . . [Her] meticulous storytelling announces a writer in command of her
gifts."-Minneapolis Star Tribune
