How Beautiful We Were

Content Warning: This section of the novel includes sexual assault and forced pregnancy.

Thula finds out about her friends’ violence against a laborer and stops sending them money. Mr. Fish, the new overseer in Kosawa, is well-liked, but the conditions of villagers’ lives do not change under his watch. When the perpetrators of the attack on the laborer cannot be found, three of the children are framed for the attack and imprisoned in Lokunja.

The Restoration Movement takes Pexton to court, and the company agrees to give Kosawa a percentage of the profit made on Pexton’s land and release the prisoners if the vandalism stops. The children agree, but Pexton does not abide by the terms of the agreement.

In the US, Thula and Austin fall in love, but he is unable to return to her home country. Austin is resigned to waiting for change, deciding that life is too short to battle immoveable forces. Thula, however, remains hopeful; she asks her friends to pause fighting until she can return and get the elders on board. She decides that the actual enemy is the dictatorial government, so she plans to rally her country against