Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Press for the Reader's Copy!

Now available.

What motivates you? Eleven year old Neil Narayan struggles to answer this question as he navigates life in suburban Georgia. Straddled by his older, successful sister Prachi who dreams of becoming Ms. Teen India and the worries of his mother, "american-pherican," Neil looks to find himself among the white and Indian world of Harcourt County. When he discovers that his next door neighbor Anita Dayal has a surefire way of obtaining ambition, he jumps onboard. The adventures the two get into will leave your head spinning, and wishing for a little taste of the golden lemonade yourself.

What works about this story is the strong magical realism element and the author's poetic language. The concept of drinking liquid gold to steal other people's ambitions is very interesting and the author presents a very cool history of the gold trade in India and the US. What would have worked better for me as a reader is if the story had ended with adolescent Neil. The later half of the book focuses on adult Neil dealing with the very real repercussions of his adolescent actions, such as struggling with addiction, depression and commitment issues. The ending seems a little bit too happy in my opinion.

Thank you so much to Penguin Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my gosh. This book was such a wild ride. I didn’t quite know what to expect going into this book after reading it, I’m honestly shocked at how this book managed to have such a crazy magical realism arc and include authentic (and sometimes downright hilarious) reminders about what it’s like to a part of the Indian diaspora, all while tackling serious issues like mental health, suicide awareness, domestic violence, and substance abuse (this is an adult book meant for readers 18+). I had the time of my life reading this book and I’d have to give it 4 stars!

Gold Diggers tells the story of Neil Narayan, a second-generation Indian American teenager growing up in the early 2000’s in the Atlanta suburbs. His parents have high expectations about his success in high school, college and beyond, which is only fueled further by his driven older sister’s ambitions. Neil’s neighbor, Anita Dayal, catches his eye, leading him to discover a secret about her family: that Anita and her mother Anjali have been brewing an ancient alchemical potion from stolen gold that harnesses the ambition of the jewelry's original owner. When Neil joins their side hustle, events spiral into a tragedy that rips their community apart. A decade later, Neil is a history grad student studying the California gold rush in Silicon Valley, where he reunites with Anita and resurrects their old habit of gold theft for one last heist.

After hearing that this book was targeted more towards Indian American millennials, a part of me was hesitant about reading this book because I thought that I wouldn’t be able to relate to Neil’s experiences, being an Indian American in Gen Z. However, I soon realized that many of the struggles and events Neil goes through were quite universal. It was honestly really interesting for me to read about his experiences because Neil and his other Asian American friends grew up in an area of Atlanta where there weren’t many minorities around, which definitely influenced the way he interacts with his friends. I was fortunate enough to have grown up in an area in the U.S. where Asian Americans were the majority at my high school and therefore I did not feel as excluded as Neil did at times. Nevertheless, the representation was amazing and I loved all the relatable and funny tidbits. The mix of Hindi and English was really well done and added a sense of drama and flair to all the crazy moments in the story, which I loved. The discussions of mental health in the context of the South Asian community was also really well done in my opinion. When I was younger, mental health was such a taboo topic in my Indian community, and although more discussions are being opened up, we still have a long way to go and I think this book did a great job of tackling the topic.

I think my biggest issue with the book was the ending after Neil and Anita’s last heist. It personally fell a little flat to me, especially after reading such an intense sequence of events. I think an ending that still maintained the same level of thrill and craziness would have better. I also found myself unable to root for Neil and Anita many times throughout the book. Both seemed like bad friends and peers in each half of the story, and because of that I think they were perfect for one another. Nevertheless, I think that Gold Diggers is an amazing debut for Sanjena Sathian perfect for all members of the Indian diaspora!

Sanjena Sathian's debut novel is a fully original story that harnesses the fever of the California Gold Rush, the intoxication of the American dream, and the pressure of the modern day immigrant parent all in one story. In Atlanta, Georgia we meet Neil / Neeraj, a second-generation teen struggling to live up to his Indian-born parents’ goals. He’s surrounded by Asian-American whiz kids whose academic and extracurricular activities leave him in the dust. He simply seems to be missing the drive. He’s also besotted with his neighbor, Anita, an exceptionally successful student as well as a leading contestant for Miss Teen India Georgia. It’s like she’s in overdrive, imbued with some extra special quality that Neil can only fantasize of obtaining. But then Neil discovers Anita’s secret to success. I won’t give it all away, but Anita’s power lies in gold and alchemy. In exchange for his silence, Neil obtains access to Anita’s secret weapon and suddenly he’s able to compete with his peers, he’s able to meet his parents’ weighty expectations. But this success comes with a price, as well as a level of addiction, and one fateful event shatters everything. Ten years and a number of partially-managed addictions later, the cycle begins again. . . Sathian starts a necessary conversation about the pressures that immigrant parents so often place on their children, centered around a protagonist that breaks the stereotype of the Asian-American overachiever. I loved her use of gold as a central player in the story and as a metaphor for both the intoxication of the American promise and the addiction of its pursuit. Sathian’s play of alchemy, culture, history, and lore in a modern drama is enchantingly delivered.

Now the bad part: When I first started reading this book, I was so into it. I found the use of alchemy so interesting and so mysterious, and I was invested in what the book seemed to be saying. But the protagonist Neil's character just killed the fun of reading for me. I knew early in reading the later parts that I just did not like Neil as a character, but it wasn't until after I'd finished reading the book that I figured out why: Neil is unambitious. Neil envies everyone who has drive in life because he himself has none. Neil drinks, does drugs, and engages in other forms of questionable behavior in an attempt to forget about the details of his life. In short, Neil is wangsty.

Honestly, I got frustrated with the book for making me suffer through Neil not just because I thought Neil sucked, but because the secondary characters surrounding him are much more interesting than Neil is. Like far too much literary fiction I've read, I found myself resenting the author for forcing me to sit through Neil's existential angst so that I could find out what was going to happen to Lakshmi, Anjali, and Anita. I would have been much more happier reading this had it been focused on Anjali & Anita as main characters.

This may have been a case where I read too much hype about the book before I read it, lessening my enjoyment of the story.

First, the good: I loved reading about the Indian-American experience, ranging from the lone, long-ago gold prospector that follows us through the tale to the modern experience of growing up in the United State with immigrant parents who have set extremely high standards for you. I don't think I've read a book like it, and I loved the story (especially the first half).

I think the book fell a bit flat for me in that the themes (GOLD) were a bit too obvious and stressed, and I feel like the author felt pressure to make some sort of exciting climax to the book when it probably needed a quieter and subtler ending—it almost felt like a weird genre-shift in the last 25% or so. I also simply didn't like the main character very much—I was much more interested in Anita and her mom, and I wonder what the book would have been like if we had followed them in first-person instead of Neil.

Even though I wasn't blown away by the book, it was a pleasant read and I'm really looking forward to what the author writes next.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3952444593

This book has such a creative premise. This is speculative fiction explores issues of cultural identity to amazing effect!

I read this one because I interviewed Sathian for my podcast. I enjoyed the creativity of the story and all of the research she conducted for it. Definitely a unique and interesting tale.

“Briefly, he wonders if he’s gone mad: Did he just drink away wealth? But then something calms him, and says to wait, wait for the blessing.”

GOLD DIGGERS is a coming-of-age story about two second-generation Indian Americans who are struggling to find their identity under the weight of the familial and cultural expectations placed on their futures. @sanjenasathian takes some of these heavier themes—immigrant identity, ambition, family—and places them in this entertaining story about teenagers in the Atlanta suburbs, meeting up at TCBY and talking on AIM. she mixes in a dose of magical realism as Neil and Anita become part of a basement production of lemonade (secret ingredient: stolen gold) that they drink with the hopes of absorbing the ambitions and dreams of others. 4/5⭐️—I liked it!

Teenager Neil Narayan struggles to live up to his Indian American parents’ big expectations for him. He’s more interested in his cute neighbor Anita, especially when he learns she can brew ambition in an alchemical potion made from stolen gold. But after their heists lead to a terrible tragedy, they’ll spend the rest of their lives haunted by their actions.

This satirical novel about ambition and the American Dream, especially from an Indian American perspective, is darkly hilarious. It's also a wild ride, full of danger, daring, and ancient magic. I laughed, I gasped, I cringed, and I often found myself on the edge of my seat. I'm in awe of how much Sanjena Sathian managed to fit into this tale!

Wise, witty, and smart, this novel about Indian Americans is a much-needed story for our times. Sathian is a canny observer of culture and history and has woven together multiple threads for a well-textured story. The prose sometimes flags in places, especially given the richness of the material. The magical realism aspect is done rather well too. An interview is forthcoming on the Desi Books podcast (https://desibooks.co.)

I was really excited about this book. It was such a unique and fun concept. However, I really struggled to connect with the main character. He felt very passive and as though the story was carrying him along as opposed to him causing the story to happen. The beginning prologue where Anjali was a girl completely drew me in and I was thrown off by the switch in point of view. I found myself growing less and less interested in Neil's story as it felt drawn out with little action. It felt passive even when big, emotional events happened. I give up about halfway through unable to sustain my interest. I really wanted to love this book but it just wasn't for me.

Sometimes there are books that awe me with their spot-on articulations of things I have experienced in my life but couldn’t put words to. Other times there are books that are so outside of my personal and limited worldview that they awe me because of their ability to crack my mind open a little bit wider. “Gold Diggers” was one of those books for me.

Short-ish summary: “Gold Diggers” follows Neil and Anita (and their families) as they encounter typical high school drama heightened by the pressures of being second-generation kids. When Neil (who is not-so-low-key in love with Anita) discovers that Anita’s success is due in part to an alchemical concoction brewed by her mother, he wants in. Eventually, disaster strikes. Fast-forward almost a decade, and we find Neil and Anita in adulthood, still struggling with how to reconcile and balance their wants with those of their parents. Anita has a plan. As Neil is still not-so-low-key in love with Anita, he’s predictably along for the ride.

“Gold Diggers” is funny, original, slightly magical, and offers damning and hilarious commentary on how far people will go to make their parents happy and survive the American meritocracy. The themes of gold, alchemy, and history are woven in with a skill that I can’t even believe.

I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between the kids from Hammond Grove and the character Liberite (from the book “Liberite” by Kaitlyn Greenidge). They’re all trying to figure out how to walk the tightrope of living up to their parents’ expectations of them as humans- but also as representatives of their respective diasporas. “Conceptual orphan” is the brilliant term Sathian uses for this:

“We were both conceptual orphans. Perhaps that is the condition of any second generation. In the space between us and the rest of adulthood lay a great expanse of the unknown. We had not grown up imbibing stories that implicitly conveyed answers to the basic questions of being: What did it feel like to fall in love in America, to take oneself for granted, in America? Starved as we were for clues about how to live, we would grip like mad on to anything that lent a possible way of being.”

With echoes of Libertie, “‘I wished everyone would give up on me,’ Neil says. ‘Their gazes were too forceful, their hopes for me too enormous.’” Both books spend a lot of time exploring the rebelliousness of wanting to be something else, maybe even (gasp!) average, against their parents’ lofty ambitions.

It turns out, however- it’s not just the parents who make the assumption that parents and their offspring have identical wants and ambitions. Neil’s sister, Prachi, is out shopping for her wedding and runs into Anita. She passes this quick judgment:

“‘Anyway, if she’s wedding shopping now, she must be doing okay,’ she said. Which was, of course, so like my sister’s particular understanding of happiness.”

And of course, there’s Neil’s interaction with a white girl he’s casually sleeping with:
“Arabella’s confessions were terribly normal—concerns about the shape of her breasts, were they too eggplanty, etc. When it came my turn, I spoke of academic and familial pressures and Asian emasculation. She’d nodded as I wrapped up the perfunctory revelations and told me that she ‘lived entirely with people who identified as hyphenated in college’ and therefore ‘got it.’”

Cringe. Hilarious, but. Cringe.

While there were a lot of things I liked about this book, my favorite by far was that each character was allowed to be imperfect, and at times downright awful. But I still rooted for each of them- they were drawn so realistically it was easy to empathize even when I wanted to slap them. I love good depictions of imperfect people, which leads to my favorite line from the book:

“‘If you insist on carrying that around,’ he said, ‘find a way to make it make you better.’”

(ALSO just read that Mindy Kaling may be producing a series based on the novel. YES.)

From mid-1800's Gold Rush California to 1980's Mumbai to a modern US, Sathian weaves together the lives of a handful of Indian-Americans in pursuit of success in a new land. The bulk of the book is set in contemporary Georgia and California as friends/classmates/neighbors Neeraj (Neil) and Anita grow up and face the lofty expectations of their immigrant parents. When Neil discovers an alchemical advantage employed by Anita's mother Anjali to aid her daughter in her scholarly pursuits, his life trajectory is altered.

This novel is a clever meditation on ambitions and expectations, trauma and healing, identity, the notion of success, and the impossible American Dream. Sathian's mythic passages set during the Gold Rush are glorious and their tie-ins to Neil and Anita's reality are fun to read. Witty with moments of heartbreak and hilarity.

Neil Narayan does not have the same drive or ambition that his peers have towards academics or even extra-curricular activities. His older sister is headed to Duke and his classmates toward other successful destinies, but Neil just mostly wants to be with his neighbor, Anita Dayal, for whom he has complicated feelings - lust, romance, or is it just curiosity? Anita is extremely successful but also has a secret - she and her mother have been brewing an ancient potion using gold stolen from people whose success they are hoping to harness. When Neil discovers this secret, he wants in. For a brief time, he seems to suddenly be more successful in all his endeavors, until he goes one step too far and things get tragically wrong.

Gold Diggers is quite unlike any book I've read before. I almost didn't want to read it because alchemy reminds me of boring middle school classes but I am glad I picked it. A lot of time is spent talking about the brewing and drinking of this magical potion, and its effects on its drinkers - both in terms of the success that follows and also the addictive tendencies that they display. One can put this into magical realism, fantasy, or historical fiction (if you believe in that stuff) but the good thing is that it doesn't matter - very quickly, I accepted it as a quirky aspect of this story. It is also core to the entire plot and why Neil and Anita do certain things.

This is a very rich novel, culturally. Most of the characters are either Indian or Indian American. There is a lot of reference to both groups' customs and practices but what impressed me a lot was how the phrases used in the book changed depending on whether that part of the story was set in India or in the US.

The book starts with an insight into Anjali Dayal's upbringing in Bombay (before it was called Mumbai) and then we quickly jump more than 20 years later to Neil's life in a suburb in Atlanta, and his next door neighbor, Anita, who is Anjali's daughter. The last part of the book is set 10 years later, when Neil is working through his dissertation and Anita has her own business. Both were well-told and nicely linked together. I can't say I liked any of the characters though. I didn't hate them, but they were too self-centered to be likable. That was the intention of the author, so full points there. Neil does a good job giving a humorous perspective to others' actions. He also doesn't keep his thoughts in check - so his lascivious thoughts had me cringing often.

This is definitely not a book to rush through - I made the mistake of assuming it was, and it went slower than it should have. There's definitely a lot to appreciate in this book - the plot, the culture, the vernacular. There's also a little history in here about the California Gold Rush and the forty-niners (not the Football team). While I had heard a bit about the gold rush, this is the first time I actually read through its history (some from the book, some from Wikipedia). Ultimately, I appreciated how well the author used a historical event (gold rush) and a medieval practice (alchemy) to bring together a mother and daughter's intense ambition (Anjali and Anita) with a neighbor's intrigue (Neil) and connect them to a cultural trend (India's love affair with gold). She does this with a good insight into the customs of the characters. Once I read it, as unlikely as it was that a gold potion can give you new strengths, it felt very believable when reading this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Press for providing Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian in exchange for my honest review.
Gold Diggers is a lot. We follow teenager Neeraj “Neil” Narayan as he moves through a mystery, a jewel heist, history, romance, some magical elements, and the pressures of having very little ambition. For me the book questions what it means to be successful in America and what’s the cost? Sathian dives into what it looks like to be a second-generation Indian American in the Atlanta suburbs during the Bush era.
While I didn’t LOVE Gold Diggers because of the slow pacing, it has so much to offer the world in general. The characters range from absolutely intriguing to terrifyingly real and that alone would make me recommend this to others. The story itself has realistic elements that are compelling and thought-provoking. A book club could spend multiple meetings dissecting the imagery and metaphors throughout. I just wish it had flowed a little better for me personally.

Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian has already landed a deal with Mindy Kaling to be developed into a TV series, and that can be attributed to the excellent premise of the novel.

There are so many good elements in Gold Diggers - this story has a bit of mystery, a jewel heist, history, romance, magic, and social commentary on the pressures and emotional labors of being the model minority.

Gold Diggers is a coming of age story about a second-generation Indian American, Neil Narayan, as he grapples with being the ideal, successful son and trying to find place in America. The book questions what does it mean to be successful and at what cost to ourselves and our well-being. Additionally, this story delves into what it means as an immigrant, particularly an Indian-American immigrant, and what it means to see yourself reflected in America’s heritage and as an American.

While I wanted to love not just like Gold Diggers, because this story has so much offer however, I felt like something was missing to tie together the story together. Perhaps it would have been better told from another character’s perspective. At times, the pacing of the story was a bit off and slow, but the concept and themes in the story kept me dedicated to see the book through.

Honestly, I think someone could write their thesis on this book, because there is so much to dissect and the way Ms. Sathian uses gold as a narrative thread through its imagery and metaphors is outstanding.

I enjoyed this story of second generation Indian American and their struggles to find their own way on America. This novel is rich with culture and heritage which is very interesting to read. I found that the main character Neil did not really ring out as a developed character, but was more to love the plot along. I would have liked a little more of his character development in the beginning, same with Anita, so that we cared more deeply as they moved throughout their lives.

This was a really interesting premise, and I love how it tied together the beliefs about riches and wealth and striving from both Indian and American cultures. That striving is not inherently American, and is not inherently the immigrant story, either. We have many shared histories and many different ones, too. I did find this to be quite long, and it dragged in parts. I think some sections could have been more concise.

Gold Diggers, the name itself is super catchy, top it off with this artistic cover and astonishing penmanship of Sanjena Sathian, you have a literary winner in the house!!
I adored reading this novel, narrating the story of Indo American families settled in suburbs of Georgia and the struggle and aspirations second generation Indians go through!

The story is narrated from Neil’s POV who is a non ambitious teen surrounded by his super ambitious Ivy League aspiring friends. He is attracted to his neighbor and friend Anita who is harboring a secret with her mom. Neil learns about the mother-daughter secret and joins their pact. But overtime they realize the cost of their actions.

The story resonated very well with me, as I am an Indo-American, settled in Sunny city California! I could relate to Indian parents who has high hopes and dreams for their children, their ambition of achieving the Big American Dream in a foreign land! Gold Diggers has its own unique humor and wittiness with very heavy focus on characters and story building, making this novel a marvelous literary fiction!

Thank you @penguinpress and @netgalley for the advance galley in exchange of my honest review!

Gold Diggers revolves around three people: Neeraj "Neil" Narayan, Anita Dayal and her mother Anjali Dayal. the book is from Neil's perspective and it tells their coming of age story. it builds on their second generation immigrant status, how they build their lives according to their parents expectations and how that sometimes drives them do something irrational in their case brewing magical potions to achieve success.
the book has hints of magical realism, a heist but is also a coming of age novel. it talks about what it is like to be Indian American especially at some points in the book, me as an Indian realised how the diaspora is simply unaware
of the politics of the homeland especially with the mention of Hinduism and Bharminism so causally. some parts of it when the did not sit well with me but moving on from that the story is about alchemy and heavily derived from Hindu mythology. Neil and Anita are brewed ambition by Anjali which unknowingly gets them an addiction to the high. they both deal with this in their own way to move on in their adult life after an incident forced them to stop brewing.
10 years later, they're reunited to save Anjali. Although the book for me started quite interestingly building these characters somewhere along the heist bit it gets a bit slow. the magic realism of the book is what was carrying me through it. one hint: Indians do love their gold. make what you want of this hint. all in all its quite an enjoyable read and it builds really well. definitely something one can finish in a single sitting.
3.75 stars out of a 5.

Thank you NetGally and Penguin Press for the Advance Reader's Copy for an honest review.

I didn't realize how satirical this book was going to be, but it worked really well for me. In having the characters literally drink gold to get ahead, Sathian skewers the idea of the American dream being the ultimate goal and demonstrates the devastating effects of both unchecked ambition and the listlessness that comes with feeling like you SHOULD have this ambition even when you don't. I didn't really connect with Neil, our PhD-candidate protagonist who turns to drugs to keep him going, but the plot is compelling, and I particularly enjoyed the literary asides containing more of the vignettes and historical fiction.