Imbolo Mbue quotes
Cameroon / United States, late 20th–21st century · novelist and short-story writer
About Imbolo Mbue
Born in Limbe, Cameroon, around 1981–1983 (year uncertain), Imbolo Mbue moved to the United States as a teenager and studied at Rutgers and Columbia. Her debut, Behold the Dreamers (2016), won the PEN/Faulkner and was an Oprah Book Club selection. Her fiction examines immigration, economic inequality and corporate environmental impact.
Works: Behold the Dreamers (2016); How Beautiful We Were (2021)
Quotes
“Our people say no condition is permanent, Mr. Edwards. Good times must come to an end, just like bad times, whether we want it or not.”
Source: Behold the Dreamers, 2016 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording appears in Imbolo Mbue's novel Behold the Dreamers (2016), spoken by the character Jende Jonga to Clark Edwards.
- What remains uncertain
- Verified as a line from the novel; the sentence is dialogue by a fictional character, not a direct statement by Mbue herself.
The line states a hard-earned wisdom: circumstances change. Spoken by Jende Jonga as he parts from Clark Edwards, it frames both personal loss and fragile privilege during the 2007–08 financial collapse and carries communal Cameroonian resonance.