Helene Calista Dennis Cooper: A Brief Summary

On April 22, 1966, Helene Calista Esmeralda Esdolores Dennis Cooper is born into the upper-class family of Calista Dennis and John Lewis Cooper Jr. As Helene describes it, her ancestors Elijah Johnson and Randolph Cooper, who were the founders of Liberia in 1822, gave her a "one-in-million lottery ticket". Because of the growing family, the Coopers moves to a twenty-two-room mansion on Sugar Beach. To help Helene overcome the fear of sleeping alone, Eunice was brought in to act as a playmate for the children. Helene's childhood is abruptly cut short when soldiers assassinate President William Tolbert on April 12, 1980. Consequently, the Coopers, along with all Congo people, are hunted, imprisioned, and tortured. After her mother is group-raped by soldiers, she flees to the United States with her daughters, leaving Eunice behind
A new home and new school faces her in Knoxville, Tennessee as she settles in. After a year, Calista travels back to Liberia and Helene and Marlene move in with her father in Greensboro, North Carolina. Helene realizes her love for journalism and majors in it at the University of North Carolina at Chapel. After finishing school, she moves to Providence, Rhode Island to pursue her dream. The Wall Street Journal hires her as a traveling reporter and sends her to Iraq cover the war. When she is nearly killed, Helene realizes that she has to return to Liberia and find