The Washington Post described Imbolo Mbue’s debut as “the one novel Donald Trump should read”. Its main characters, Cameroonians Jende and Neni Jonga, arrive in America in 2008, just as the country’s fabled dream is at once being realised in a black president and dismantled by the financial crisis. Mbue’s protagonists offset one another’s excesses: her pragmatism, his naivety; his nostalgia, her ambition. Wholly intemperate, by contrast, are their employer-counterparts. Clark and Cindy Edwards come from the same radically narcissistic mould as Jennifer Egan’s motley crew in A Visit from the Goon Squad, so much so that their mental and marital breakdown seems almost preordained. In setting their domestic drama against the Jongas’ threat of deportation, Mbue crafts a satire of unusual subtlety.
• Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue is published by Fourth Estate (£12.99). To order a copy for £10.99 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
