000			02881cam a2200289 a 4500
001			027410
005			20231009192522.0
008			301008s2008 nyuab d 000 0aeng
010			_a2008277249
020			_a9780743266246
050	0	0	_aDT636.53.C66 _bA3 2008b
082	0		_a92 COO
100	1		_aCooper, Helene
245	1	4	_aThe house at Sugar Beach _b: in search of a lost African childhood _c/ Helene Cooper
250			_a1st Simon & Schuster hardcover edition
260			_aNew York _b: Simon & Schuster _c, 2008.
300			_a354 p. _b: ill., map _c; 22 cm.
520			_aHelene 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. 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 child -- a common custom among the Liberian elite. Eunice, a Bassa girl, suddenly became known as "Mrs. Cooper's daughter." For years the Cooper daughters -- Helene, hersister Marlene, and Eunice -- blissfully 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'état, 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 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, The House at Sugar Beach tells of tragedy, forgiveness, and transcendence with unflinching honesty and a survivor's gentle humor. And at its heart, it is a story of Helene Cooper's long voyage home.
600	1	0	_aCooper, Helene
650		0	_aElite (Social sciences)
650			_aJournalists _z-United States _v--Biography
650			_aLiberian Americans _v--Biography
651		0	_aLiberia _x--Biography
651		0	_aLiberia _x--History _z--1971-1980
651		0	_aLiberia _x--History _z--1980-
942			_cMO
999			_c240304 _d240304