As the weather grows wilder and the ice caps melt, Arctic bears starve, dragons awake, the earth goddess Gaia becomes restless, and Alexa, the daughter of best-selling author David Rain, uses her special abilities in an attempt to save the world from the forces of evil.

"'We should have known the end was near.' So begins Imbolo Mbue's exquisite and devastating novel 'How Beautiful We Were.' Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by a large and powerful American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean up and financial reparations to...