Imbolo Mbue to Discuss New Novel at Montclair Event

A Rutgers graduate, Mbue won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was selected for Oprah’s Book Club for her first novel, which was recognized as a notable book of the year by both The New York Times and The Washington Post. Behold the Dreamers has been translated into eleven languages, adapted into an opera and a stage play, and optioned for a film.

In her new novel, Every Story is a Love Story, Mbue explores themes of lost love and regret through the character Wolo, who grapples with the death of his wife in a tragic car accident. Three years after her death, he receives a letter from the woman who caused the accident. Despite his family's and friends' objections, he agrees to meet her, and her expressions of compassion and remorse have an unexpected impact on him.

Mbue described her experience at Rutgers, stating that her journey as an immigrant in the U.S. began there when she received the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2017. She graduated in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in business management and currently resides in New York City. Originally from Limbe, Cameroon, Mbue grew up without running water and without access to public libraries but was an avid reader. At 17, she moved to the U.S. for education, sponsored by an aunt and uncle, who chose Rutgers’s Douglass College.

The event will take place at 7 pm at the Montclair Art Museum, as part of the Garden State Author Talks series. Mbue will be interviewed by Aidan Flax-Clark, director of the New York Public Library’s public programming series, LIVE from NYPL.

For tickets, visit the event website.