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

English

ISBN: 0743579518

EAN: 9780743579513

Category: Biography & Autobiography / General

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Release Date: 09/30/2008

Synopsis: A poignant memoir of tragedy, forgiveness, and transcendence told with unflinching honesty and gentle humorHelene Cooper is Congo, a descendant of two Liberian dynasties -- traced 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 in a childhood 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 child, a Bassa girl named Eunice.For years the Cooper daughters -- Helene, her sister Marlene, and Eunice -- blissfully enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. But on April 12, 1980 a group of soldiers staged a coup detat, assassinating Liberian President William Tolbert and executing his cabinet. The Coopers and the entire Congo class were now the hunted, being imprisoned, shot, tortured, and raped. Helene, Marlene, and their mother fled Sugar Beach for America. They left Eunice behind.A world away, Helene tried to assimilate as an American and discovered her passion in journalism, eventually becoming a reporter for theWall Street Journaland theNew York Times. She reported from every part of the globe -- except Africa -- as Liberia descended into war-torn, third-world hell. In 2003, a near-death experience in Iraq convinced Helene that Liberia -- and Eunice -- could wait no longer. At once a deeply personal memoir and an examination of a violent and stratified country to which her own family is inextricably linked,The House At Sugar Beachis the story of Helene Coopers long voyage home.

Awards: National Book Critics Circle Awards – null  National Book Critics Circle Awards – null  National Book Critics Circle Awards – null 

Excerpt: Unknown Property Excerpt

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

Illustrated: No

Format: Compact Disc

Height: 1.2 inches

Width: 5.0 inches

Length: 5.88 inches

Weight: 11.99 oz