Author: Imbolo Mbue
Nominated By :Joan Knowlton
fiction
A novel that takes on race, immigration, family, and the dangers of capitalist excess. A young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York when the Great Recession of 2008 upends the economy. Jenda Jonga, after working as a dishwasher, lands a job as a driver for Clark Edwards, one of the 1%. Jenda is poor and living in Harlem with his family but feel he is on the fast track to a better life. Events unfold that suggest the American dream might be more fragile than advertised.