They dream in gold is a multigenerational debut novel by Mai sennaar. The novel covers the human experience as it follows a family through time. Chasing and losing dreams, music, family, love, African diaspora and pride are all themes in this novel as the family finds resiliency and
Shelter in one another.

While I enjoyed the themes explored, the switching of the timelines was hard for me to follow for some reason. I do think this was a me issue and not so much a reflection on the author or book.

recommended for readers of multigenerational fiction.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

They Dream in Gold is a debut novel by Mai Sennaar focusing on Bonnie and Mansour. Throughout the span of the book, we experience not only their current story, but also much of their individual back stories which add depth to the characters and the story.

I enjoyed meeting and traveling with these characters and look forward to future books by this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of They Dream In Gold in exchange for an honest review. This book is available now.

I loved absolutely everything about this book. The vibrant characters, the exquisite descriptions of the physical locations they inhabit throughout the course of the novel, the love of music that is inextricably woven into every page. I could not put it down, and part of me was desperately sad to finish it, because I didn't want to part from these beautiful people and their complicated, but love-filled dynamics. What a gift Ms. Sennaar has, and how grateful I am that she's shared it with the world.

Chasing dreams, traveling the world, falling in love, multigenerational, music and art - so much is packed into this book that was an absolute pleasure to read.

Some spoilers ahead

Bonnie and Mansour meet in mid-century New York. They have things in common: very messy childhoods, and time spent in a town called Mende, in France. But how they meet comes about through very unusual circumstances, perhaps destiny: Bonnie is toiling away in the basement of a record company when she comes across liner notes for Mansour’s debut album, recorded with his mate Liam. Intrigued, she later creates album art for it and sneaks it into the pile going out for printing. When she’s caught—by her lover’s wife, no less, a record company executive—she’s sent to attend the release party, and eventually meets Mansour. It’s something much deeper than love at first sight.

But there are many currents flowing below and between their lives; their love story is fraught and full of pain, as they leave New York after a tragic death, and move back to Europe. Mansour is an orphan, a man with a crippling medical condition, and is also a Black man living in 1960s and 70s France, in the US, and Switzerland. When they first meet, Bonnie has just lost the grandmother who raised her after her own mother abandoned her, and is adrift in the world.

This is an achingly lyrical story, with fully realised, memorable Black characters. Mansour has the air of tragedy about him, but struggles forward always. His adoptive mother seems cold, until you learn about her own battles. Bonnie’s mother is also paying forward her inherited, generational pain. But Bonnie and Mansour are bound by more than pain, and that gives the story hope.

Read for the evocative atmosphere Sennaar has created in this novel, for this rare and beautiful visualisation of Afrodiasporic life in mid-century Europe. Read also if you enjoyed Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water: this has the same rhythms, also grounds the story in music, and is equally lyrical, although it feels like this story goes deeper. There is a thread of fabulism running through, culminating in a truly unrealistic scene—but by then, Sennaar’s storymaking will have you take it all in stride. They Dream in Gold is a love letter to love, and to difficult families.

Many thanks to Zando/SJP Lit and to NetGalley for an early copy.

I grabbed 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬 𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗜𝗡 𝗚𝗢𝗟𝗗 after @mamacappsreads posted her review and I'm so glad I did - Mai Sennaar's debut novel is unlike anything I've read before. It's a moving multi-generational story that takes the reader to from Senegal to Paris and New York City to Rio, and explores what it means to be a mother, an artist, and an immigrant in a truly unique way. This the second book I've read from SJP Lit (the new imprint from Sarah Jessica Parker and Zando Books) and they've both been thought-provoking - I can't wait to read more from them and Sennaar.

Thank to Zando Books and SJP Lit for the copy to review.

For some reason, I just could not get into this novel, couldn't fully sink into the experience of reading it. Likely it's me because usually I enjoy moving among characters and time periods, and this has family and love and music and diaspora and on and on, but this just didn't work for me. Apologies.

This is a beautiful written powerful story. I did the audio and I highly recommend it. The narrator does an amazing job of really pulling you in and keeping you hooked.

This is a great example of making you feel something with words instead of just telling you. I loved the story of Bonnie and Monsour. They start separate and we get each background but quickly, they are together and we get their time in the music industry. The plot is both slow and moody but also fast paced and really compels you to keep reading. It's about family, belonging and being moved by music and love.

I was surprised by how much I loved this. I can't recommend the audio enough!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

This is a rich, complicated story about Bonnie and Mansour who meet in 1968 New York, bound by their love of music. Monsour is a Senegalese musician who is exploring music that weaves jazz with traditional African beats. He's lived in both Africa and Europe, set adrift by his family. Bonnie is similarly unmoored with a neglectful mother who "raised" her in Paris. Bonnie becomes pregnant and stays with his family in Switzerland while Monsour goes on tour of Spain. All's good until he goes silent, not calling and, most concerning of all, missing gigs.

The story covers two generations of their families and revolves through Senegal to Paris to New York to Switzerland. There are lots of arresting characters in interesting places, which is both great and confusing. It could be the formatting of the digital review copy, but It was initially hard to follow whose story was being told and where they were. Mai Sennaar's writing is warm and rich, and once I caught on to the rhythm each story was rewarding. The story matter is a fresh and engrossing look at the African diaspora and Black experiences around the world in the 1960s and 70s.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for access to this novel in exchange for an honest review. Since this is a first novel, I look forward to following Sennaar's career.

Buckle up...this is a complicated read. Long at over four hundred pages, complex in its interrelated cast of characters, difficult to summarize as a result. Senegal, Paris, New York...the Twenties, the Sixties...familys seen in passing, a family being formed...this novel's a web.

It's a debut novel for the storyteller and close to a debut for the publisher. Sarah Jessica Parker's SJP Lit is part of a company called Zando Projects. SJP Lit's mission statement is:
<blockquote>Sarah Jessica Parker’s SJP Lit publishes sweeping, expansive, thought-provoking, and discussion-driven stories that are inclusive of international and underrepresented voices. SJP Lit books capture the contemporary imagination and reflect a wide range of ideas and experiences.</blockquote>

So someone famous decided not to start a book club, or an imprint in the Corporate World, but a company publishing books she curates and pays for and edits for us to see what she wants to read and offers us as worth it to read, too. As I would expect from Parker's résumé, the story told here is very much focused on character development. Bonnie and Mansour are not, despite what you could reasonably expect from the synopsis, the only or even the best developed characters. Because the story does not conform to linear time's slightly tedious constraints, we get the family polyphonics as well as the dynamics. This is a fancy way for me to say, if you're expecting a straightforward family saga, you're going to be left wanting. If you really want a book you can inhabit, one that feels more like a series (I mean this in the good way!) than a standalone, here's a great summertime immersion.

The way we move from time to time, from place to place, demands of the reader a level of participation, of code-switching, that might be off-putting for some. I think you'll twig quite quickly to the cues that indicate we're going to shift, though they are not the same from one instance to the next. What I like about that is the mood of the read never stagnates, a danger that family sagas can fall into readily. After a time many of them feel like trauma porn, or a weird triumphalism celebrating a character's Strength, Nobility, and Fortitude. Yeeeccchhh

Author Mai Sennaar doesn't succumb to that too-easy, too-incredible stuff. Her women are beset by worries and doubts. They wonder if things are worth it if they hurt this much, demand this much of them. They stumble, fall, and fail. But they never stay down for good.

It is a distinction, not a difference, but it is a consequential one that speaks to the author's intent. She is not going for the facile road to storytelling success. That is clear from the start. For this old white man, that made the read all the more interesting and involving. Some of that could be down to the slightly more...distant...way the narration is deployed, it gets an overview feeling across. Back to that polyphony of PoVs. This is a natural outgrowth of it. I found it enhanced my reading experience, in part because it enabled Author Sennaar to put me more firmly into the time and place the different strands of her story-web flow through.

I found I was disgruntled by one big, star-losing thing: Like Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm (whose author flatteringly blurbed this book), every one of these women is circling a man. The story's center is a man (absent though he be). Is it that hard to make these women interrelate around themselves and each other?

A crotchet of mine. The Bechdel test still matters to me because the queer equivalent is abysmal still...gay characters feature more than ever, less than reality says is fair. So, no fifth star for you, debut novel. Author Sennaar is deeply talented and should be supported, make no mistake.

Maybe she's got more to say, soon. Let's show we're listening.

Thank you to the author, Zando/SJP Lit and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This debut novel is ambitious, with a huge character, geographic and time arc - and does it ever deliver! It took me a bit to really dive in due to the large cast of characters, and there were times when I had to go back to be sure I knew who belonged where. But! So evocative, immersive, engrossing and heartwrenching, with insight and grounding into historical perspective. At first glance, this is a love story between two unlikely people - the story flows from the late 1960s in Switzerland to Senegal in the 1940s, and to the US, at times taking leaps in time and changes of POV in its stride. So much determination, hope, heartbreak, fierce strength and love speak from between the lines - I did not want the book to end and the emotional experiences that shape us all come through so clearly and boldly that I will be carrying them with me for a while. Highly recommend!

They Dream in Gold by Mai Sennaar has a unique premise with a boldly imagined cast of characters. Unfortunately, the book jumps around between characters, locales, and time periods too frequently for the reader to become immersed in the otherwise interesting storytelling. As such, it was impossible for me to become invested in these characters’ stories. Without a clear direction for the story taking shape at the 20% mark, I stopped reading.

Beautiful, inspiring novel. I loved the characters and the locations. I found myself comparing these characters to people I know, to their experiences. I loved what the author was able to make me feel and the way I was invested in these characters' lives. I thoroughly enjoyed this and will look for ore from this author. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher far an e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

When I saw the early finished copy of THEY DREAM IN GOLD on the shelf of a local bookstore, I had to buy it. I knew that I was in for a treat based on my reading of SJP Lit’s three other book. I wasn’t wrong.

They Dream in Gold is Mai Sennar’s debut novel, although there is nothing that would make you think this is her first novel. The story has deep, rich characters and a true sense of place — from New York City to Paris to Senegal over various time periods.

The book tells the story of Bonnie and Mansour who meet in a jazz club in New York City in 1968. They are both the product of broken homes — Bonnie in the US/Paris and Mansour in Senegal/Paris. Mansour is a musician with a unique sound. Bonnie falls for him hard and they travel to Paris together. Mansour goes on tour, but does not come back. His family fears him dead, but Bonnie knows he has to be alive to meet the child she is carrying. So, she puts a plan in action to find him.

My favorite part of the book was the back story of both Bonnie and Mansour, leading up to the missing Mansour plot line. Those back stories were so rich, different and engaging. This book is not like anything you have already read.

I’ve read all four of SJP Lit’s offerings thus far and I am waiting for the next to go up on Netgalley. The imprint has an eye for different stories with beautiful writing.

This beautifully written debut novel tells the story of Bonnie and Mansour, who meet in New York at his record label. He is recording a jazz album, she is the artist designing the album cover. They fall in love, she becomes pregnant, and he leaves her with his mother in Switzerland while he tours Europe. Mansour fails to return to Bonnie and a search ensues. The story meanders through time, giving the reader a sense of history. Multiple POVs serve to provide perspective as well as establish connections between the characters. I won't lie--while reading this novel, I had to reorient myself a few times to sort it out. This is a love story, but it is so much more. A really worthwhile read.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own.

I adore love stories that are not necessarily about the romantic kind( it did however have romance). They Deam in Gold gave me that feeling that you know this couple and feel the ups and or course downs as they chase their musical dreams around the world.

They Dream of Gold was a story of how the changing tides of life pull and push us while we're trying to set our feet firmly in the ground. As a debut, this is one of the best I've ever read, the flow from one point-of-view, timeline, and setting to another was tightly held together by the connections between the characters. This type of story could have so easily got away and fell apart but the author's writing style and tone keeps the traveling sands feel discussed in the author's note. I would consider Bonnie our main character and touchstone as she blows into other characters' lives and as she's with them, readers then get tangents into those character lives.

When we enter into Bonnie's life, it's 1969 Switzerland and she's heavily pregnant. Staying at her mother-in-law's home, the household is tense and stressed that they haven't heard from Mansour, Bonnie's husband. He's a musician who's been out on tour and when a radio report comes on that the women fear could hold the answer, Bonnie knows it's time to figure out what happened to Mansour. The story then branches out, giving us Bonnie's childhood, her mother couldn't take care of her when she was younger, so she left Paris to stay with her grandmother in Brooklyn, and then as each character, Bonnie's mother Claudine, Mama Eva, and the other two women staying in Mama Eva's home, Marie and Sokhna, along with Mansour and friends and colleagues Mansour makes along his way and how Bonnie and Mansour met, we flow into each characters' pov and visit their lives at certain times in their history. From 1969 Switzerland, 1949 Senegal, 1927 Alabama, and other times and places, the story manages to give intimate insights into what happened to these characters and how that has shaped and molded them in the 1969 present.

This structure sounds zig zaggy, but I promise it works, we never info dump stay with one character, it's more of a constant flowing around as the present search for Mansour is the central plot line for bringing in and connecting all these characters. As Mansour is a musician and that is a main part of what brought him and Bonnie together, it's all around in the story and what I'd keep in mind if you're more of a linear reader to help you get into the flow of this. There were moments of quiet devastation, fierce love, hope, and strength that will keep you thinking about these characters for a long time. Historical events were in the background and forefront at times to ground the reader in the time and place of the character pov you're reading at the time, adding more layers to the characters. This was an amazing story on how other's not only affect our lives as they come into and leave it, but how we carry and pass on, whether familial, friendship, or romantic, those little grains of emotional experiences from one generation to another. There was so much to experience and feel in this, that I can't recommend it enough.

A powerful debut, They Dream in Gold is a book about who we are as individuals as well as our familial identity. We learn the story of Bonnie and Mansour, alternating perspectives and timelines, going all the way back to the 1920s, until their paths finally cross in the 60s. Traveling the world, we get to know the background of this family until we come to present day, where we know that Mansour has gone missing and Bonnie is anxiously awaiting his return, pregnant with their first child.

While the blurb made this story more mysterious than it actually was, I knew from prior SJP titles that it would likely be heavy on character development and it certainly was. The story itself is quite meandering but the prose is gorgeous and Sennaar paints such a clear picture of who the characters are, that I was heavily invested in the outcome of their story.

Contemplative and throughful, They Dream in Gold is an excellent piece of historical fiction and would be a great book club pick.

Mai Sennaar's debut THEY DREAM IN GOLD show a young couple Bonnie and Mansour and their origin story, including from the perspectives of their caretakers. This novel takes place in several locations: Senegal, Switzerland, and America. Bonnie and Mansour meet when Bonnie is making the cover art for the band Mansour's in. When he goes missing while Bonnie is in the first trimester of her pregnancy, they all must reckon with their pasts.

A novel of identity and belonging, much of this novel is aching. It does have a slower pace, which some readers might not appreciate. I did, as I tend to gravitate toward character-driven novels.

This debut has very strong writing. At times, the narration is more detached than I wanted. I do favor up close and personal narration, but there is a bit of a mystery here so I understand why the author wrote it that way.

I would not hesitate to read the next novel by this author!

I normally love books with multi generational stories, switching timelines/POVs but sadly this wasn’t working for me. I found myself often getting bored or tired after only a few pages. Some chapters are more engaging than others but overall I’m not enjoying the meandering pace or story enough to continue. DNF at 15% but I’ll be recommending to my friends and fellow readers that I know would enjoy the slower pacing, character driven novel