IMBOLO MBUE is a native of the seaside city of Limbe, Cameroon. She holds a BA from Rutgers University and an MA from Columbia University. A resident of the United States for more than a decade, she lives in New York City. Her debut novel, Behold the Dreamers was published in August 2016 by Random House. In what NPR calls a “remarkable debut”, Mbue tells the story of a Cameroonian man named Jende Jonga and his wife Neni. After immigrating to America in 2007, the young Cameroonian couple hope to build a better life for their young son, Liomi. As they struggle to make ends meet in New York City, Neni works as a home health aide while attending college and Jende drives a cab. Luck changes for the two of them when Jende finds work as a personal chauffeur for a Lehman Brothers executive named Clark Edwards. Though Jende and Neni see a massive pay raise and new opportunities begin to open, their marriage takes a turn for the worse as the Edwards family’s lives unravel in the face of the 2008 financial crisis. Told from a compassionate and sensitive account of the immigration experience, the Washington Post’s Ron Charles puts it best when he describes, “Mbue’s social commentary never develops that toxic level of irony. Jende and his wife may not get exactly what they thought they wanted, but this book’s spirit remains irrepressibly buoyant.” Imbolo Mbue is winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for her debut novel.