BY KAREN BOSSICK

In the midst of America’s xenophobia, Imbolo Mbue introduced her first novel—about a young man immigrating to the United States from Cameroon.

The novel “Behold the Dreamers” illustrates the immigrant experience in America, offering a human perspective lacking in political discourse. And it depicts how the 2008 Recession affected those trying to stake out their own little piece of the American dream.

Mbue is in Sun Valley this week as part of the Sun Valley Writers Conference, which gets underway on Friday.

And she will talk about her work in a free conversation with Jenny Emery Davidson, executive director of The Community Library, at 5 tonight—Thursday, June 29—at the library.

Mbue knows of what she writes. She came to this country from Cameroon in 1998 and now lives in New York City. She has a BA from Rutgers University and an MA from Columbia University.

Her novel follows Jende Jonga, who is set on becoming a chauffeur for a hotshot Lehman Brothers executive on the eve of the 2008 Recession.

Jonga gets what he’s after after hours spent googling “the one question they ask at every job interview.” And, when he does, he has a front seat to the shiny excesses of the American dream and the pursuit of happiness all tied up in choking bits of insecurity, substance abuse, infidelity and depression.

He and his wife find their own integrity threatened as they find themselves mired in immigration purgatory.

Mbue’s novel won the 2017 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was named by The New York Times and The Washington Post as one of their Notable Books of 2016. It was also named a Best Book of 2016 by NPR, Amazon, Kirkus Reviews and a handful of newspapers.

Just this month Oprah Winfrey announced that she has chosen it as a 2017 Oprah’s Book Club selection.

SUN VALLEY WRITERS CONFERENCE OPENS FREE TALK TO PUBLIC

The Sun Valley Writers Conference has opened a Lawn Talk featuring Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer for The New Yorker and a CNN senior legal analyst, to the public free of charge.

The talk will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, July 1, on the Sun Valley Pavilion Lawn. No tickets are needed.

Toobin is author of several books including “The Nine,” the examination of the people who decide the law of the land. He will discuss “The Supreme Court in the Age of Trump” on Saturday.