House at Sugar Beach : In Search of a Lost African Childhood

English

ISBN: 0743266242

EAN: 9780743266246

Category: Biography & Autobiography / Editors, Journalists, Publishers

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 09/04/2008

Synopsis: Helene Cooper is Congo, a descendant of two Liberian dynastiestraced back to the first ship of freemen that set sail from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia. Helene grew up at Sugar Beach, a twenty-two-room mansion by the sea. Her childhood was filled with servants, flashy cars, a villa in Spain, and a farmhouse up-country. It was also an African childhood, filled with knock foot games and hot pepper soup, heartmen and neegee. When Helene was eight, the Coopers took in a foster childa common custom among the Liberian elite. Eunice, a Bassa girl, suddenly became known as Mrs. Coopers daughter. For years the Cooper daughtersHelene, her sister Marlene, and Euniceblissfully enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. But Liberia was like an unwatched pot of water left boiling on the stove. And on April 12, 1980, a group of soldiers staged a coup d?tat, assassinating President William Tolbert and executing his cabinet. The Coopers and the entire Congo class were now the hunted, being imprisoned, shot, tortured, and raped. After a brutal daylight attack by a ragtag crew of soldiers, Helene, Marlene, and their mother fled Sugar Beach, and then Liberia, for America. They left Eunice behind. A world away, Helene tried to assimilate as an American teenager. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill she found her passion in journalism, eventually becoming a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. She reported from every part of the globeexcept Africaas Liberia descended into war-torn, third-world hell. In 2003, a near-death experience in Iraq convinced Helene that Liberiaand Eunicecould wait no longer. At once a deeply personal memoir and an examination of a violent and stratified country, The House at Sugar Beach tells of tragedy, forgiveness, and transcendence with unflinching honesty and a survivors gentle humor. And at its heart, it is a story of Helene Coopers long voyage home.

Awards: National Book Critics Circle Awards – null  Original Voices Award – null  New York Times Notable Books of the Year – null 

House at Sugar Beach : In Search of a Lost African Childhood

Illustrated: Yes

Format: Hardcover

Width: 5.5 inches

Length: 8.25 inches

Weight: 16.05 oz

Pages: 368