They Dream in Gold by Mai Sennaar is a mesmerizing blend of magic, mystery, and self-discovery. The novel weaves a rich tapestry of vibrant world-building and complex characters, set against a backdrop of cultural heritage and personal ambition. Sennaar’s writing pulls readers into an enchanting journey that is both thrilling and thought-provoking.

A stunning read for lovers of fantasy with depth and heart.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this audiobook. I really struggled to keep the characters straight. I found myself continuously having to go back to figure out who was who. But I think it would be a great story!

There’s a lot to love about this book, starting with the beautiful writing and the insights into Senegalese culture and life in the 1960s. I really appreciated this aspect and the use of both Wolof and French throughout the story. Also, I was listening to this one on audio and the narrator, Julia Kwamya, truly did an excellent job with their narration style!

This novel centers on Bonnie, a pregnant American managing her partner's blossoming career, and Mansour, a Senegalese-French jazz musician. One day, Mansour is supposed to be returning from a concert in Spain but he never shows up and this causes the unraveling of Bonnie as she tries to find her partner. Throughout this story, we explore their relationships with each other and their families across continents and generations. While this story had such an interesting premise, I had mixed feelings about my reading experience. The non-linear timeline and switching between characters, their relatives, and various memories made it hard to follow at times. I found myself confused about who was who—especially since some characters had similar roles or even went by multiple names. This made it hard to connect with the characters on a deeper level even though many scenes were quite emotional.

Also, I think my expectations for the story were not entirely accurate. I expected for this to be more about Mansour’s disappearance and explaining the connections between people and this disappearance. Yet, this is much more of a character driven novel with very little action. Even though Mansour’s disappearance looms in the background, the story spends most of its time on the pasts and relationships of everyone around him and their interconnectivity. It’s a slow burn, but slower than I expected. The last third of the story is when things start to pick up. Yet, things are resolved way too easily. The way things conclude requires a great suspension of belief— which threw me off after such a nuanced story. I felt like the story was building to more than it actually was, but again this could be because I personally thought this would have more mystery elements.

Overall, it’s an ambitious book that spans different cultures and timelines, and while I found parts of it confusing, it’s definitely still a memorable story. ’d still recommend it to anyone interested in a slower-paced, character-focused story that crosses cultural and generational lines, as long as they’re not entering this book with the expectation of a mystery or a lot of action!

I waited awhile to review this because my first listen did not move me. I attempted to listen again and decided to quit while I was ahead. This book may do better in print (I don’t want to pay to find out) but overall I feel like the audio/book jumps all over the place, I found myself not being able to follow the stories or the characters. Gorgeous cover though.

spanning decades of two African musicians and their travels across Senegal, France, and Switzerland, this epic debut about the diasporic pursuit of home is gorgeously written and completely blew me away. Perfect for fans of tender stories about love but who find romance too saccharine and predictable.

I loved that this was not the typical 1960s story we commonly find in historical fiction. Instead, Sennaar creates a work of art that explores family relationships, race dynamics, art, identity and belonging across time and space.

Although the story intriguing, I would recommend the print version of this title over the audiobook. I found it a bit difficult to keep track of the various storylines while listening.

I am giving up on this book after getting half way through. I simply did not understand what was happening, timeline, how we ended up in different countries.. kept thinking I must have accidentally skipped chapters, but I hadn’t..
The voice of the narrator is good, but I think this book would’ve benefited from multiple narrators..
I couldn’t follow the book at all on audio and found it frustrating.

They Dream in Gold is a captivating novel that weaves together human stories on multiple levels. Set against the backdrop of the 1968 New York jazz scene the book spans continents and decades and follows the passionate and tumultuous relationship and bond between Bonnie and Mansour. A bond, formed out of shared experiences of displacement and longing, is both a source of solace and heartache. It also draws on characters and its exploration of the African diaspora's quest for identity and belonging. Mansour's musical journey, infused with Senegalese rhythms and the spirit of revolution, also serves as a powerful metaphor for the migrant experience. When Mansour disappears it adds another level of mystery and urgency to the narrative, propelling Bonnie on a quest that is as much about finding herself as it is about finding him. They Dream in Gold is an intimate tale that is beautifully written and deeply moving.

Thank you to #NetGalley, the author Mai Sennaar and Dreamscape Select | SJP Lit for a digital copy of the novel #TheyDreaminGold in exchange for my honest opinion.

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.

They Dream in Gold centers Bonnie and Mansour—two people who are brought together through a swapped-out album cover, an insistent Irishman, and maybe fate? The story is pitched as a love story interrupted by Mansour’s mysterious disappearance, but it’s much more than that. As Bonnie and Mansour build a partnership around their shared love of music and similarly turbulent transatlantic childhoods, their story is interspersed with the histories of the women in their lives—their absent mothers and the women who raised them.
The intergenerational and intercultural aspect of the book trails an invisible string through each family, adding depth and layers to Bonnie and Mansour’s decisions and emotional states. But the nonlinear format of this storytelling felt scattershot at times—there was a moment when I wondered if my audiobook had a shuffle feature that I’d accidentally activated. Because the story jumped between so many different characters, I found it hard to connect with any single character. Though their families’ histories added context for their past traumas and their current obstacles and shortcomings, I would have preferred to stay with Bonnie and Mansour specifically and see a greater focus on their relationships with others—Mansour navigating his contentious band, Bonnie learning how to live with Mansour’s family after his disappearance, or even Mansour struggling to overcome his self-doubt as he pursues Bonnie. Instead, the book prioritizes the actual events and how they collide into one another in unexpected ways.
The audiobook was beautifully narrated—the narrator had a musical voice that completely fit the vibe of the book and the characters came to life in her voice. But there were a few sound engineering issues—varying volume, instances where the original audio was obviously replaced—that occasionally distracted from the book.

Thank you to Dreamscape Select for the advance audiobook. I dnf'd at 77%. I only got through that much because I was waiting for the story and everything to click for me. I would first like to say that this book needs to be read physically. There are multiple points of views in this novel and that get slightly confusing until you understand the pacing of the novel. There needs to be multiple voice actors in order to do this book justice.

This book never clicked with me. I though this would be a black mystery love story but instead I was introduced to the main characters troubled family members. There were many moments in the book where I was wondering why certain parts or characters were mentioned and I am still lost. I found myself hate listening so I decided to just give up. This book wasn't worth a reading slump.

Wow, I was not expecting this book to hit me so hard! The narration was perfect! It bought this beautiful story to life in the best way!

This book spans a couple of decades and Bonnie and Mansour are bought together in their join trauma and tied together with jazz music. The story was wonderfully complex but drew me in and kept me entertained.

It was a very good read

4 stars

Bonnie and Mansour - two pieces of the African diaspora meet in New York, the 1960s music scene where Mansour has released an album and Bonnie has created the artwork. But then Mansour goes missing, while Bonnie is pregnant with his child. Told through fragmentary flashbacks, interspersed with the present-day search for Mansour, we learn the tragic histories of both Bonnie and Mansour, and their families, as they strive to find their places in the world. Two hearts destined to meet.

From Senegal and Mauritania and Mali to France and America this is an epic, ambitious novel, and a stunning debut for Mai Sennaar.

I recieved this as an ALC from Netgalley. The audio version I recieved is narrated by Julia Kwamya, who does a stellar job embodying these passionate characters. Her voices and accents for the characters are fantastic.

Because of the scale of this book, it's one I think I would need to read with my eyes alongside the audiobook, as I did get a little lost at times, and confused between some of the characters. And for me, I would have liked seeing the names and spelling of localised places/dialects. I'll definitely be picking up a copy of this to read when it is released.

~Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review~

This is a decade-spanning story about Bonnie and Mansour, who meet in New York in the late 60’s. Both coming from challenging childhoods, they are drawn together by music. Mansour is an up and coming jazz musician, and Bonnie wants to work in the managing side of the industry. They travel the world together. When Mansour goes missing, Bonnie is determined to find him.

Based on the blurb, I was expecting a lot more of the story to be about the search for Mansour. There are a lot of chapters that develop a rich backstory on each of the main characters. Since I was listening to the audiobook, I felt at a disadvantage, because it was more difficult to keep track of what year it was or character names. Seeing a lot of the character names in print would have helped me a lot. All in all, it was a nice story, and I really liked how things came together in the end. But I would recommend the actual book/e-book over the audio. Also, I love the cover.

What an incredible story! Thank you so much to the publisher for allowing me to listen to this beautiful story. This story spans multiple decades across the continent and examines the lives of two different families. Bonnie and Mansour are complex and layered characters who. must comes to terms with their difficult pasts in order to secure a hopeful future for themselves. I found the story very relatable,

Mansour and Bonnie have fallen in love after meeting by chance in New York City in the late 1960’s. Mansour’s music career has been taking off, and he has been traveling the world performing. Bonnie is pregnant and stays back while Mansour goes to perform in Spain. However, when he is due to arrive back, the day comes and goes. Days turn into months. Bonnie finally finds a lead and sets off to find out what happened to Mansour.

I’d say most of the book surrounds Bonnie and Mansour independently and their family members. The book focuses heavily on their past lives and the lives of their family. This book is character driven and great for readers who love a slow character burn. While Mansour being missing is swirling the entire book, most of the book is more exploring the history and relationship of the various family and friends of Bonnie and Mansour.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator did a good job. After finishing the book, I almost wished I could have read the physical book. The novel is a larger, ambitious book that changes time periods and characters quite a bit. At times I was confused as to what was going on. Also, at times I did feel the story was a bit slow and wanted to just know what happened to Mansour.

Thank you to Dreamscape Select, Mai Sennaar, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley, Dreamscape Select, and Mai Sennar for the ALC.

DNF'd at 17%. (I thought this was going to be more black love than black trauma, I was mistaken. I am not the target audience. I wish the book description had been more clear about this.)
___

They Dream in Gold tells the story of Bonnie and Mansour, two children of African immigrants who meet and fall in love. Through a mixed assortment of settings and years, we meet the characters and the fears that drive their relationships at each stage of their life.

The story is beautifully written, and the audio narration added an extra dimension to the reading experience. The narrator easily moves through different accents, highlighting the various backgrounds that bring this story together.

The truth is, I need to accept that literary fiction may not be for me.

The conversations about migration, cheating (male Hospital ER Department Manager with a female High School Senior), emotional neglect, hate crimes, murder and familial trauma which may be enlightening and challenging for one person, I find to be too painful to be enjoyable to read. Perhaps I'm too close to the subject.

This was a great debt from Mai Sennar about a story between Bonnie and Mansour and their relationship as well as their past. I really liked the historical aspect of Mansour's mom and aunt's story and their struggles. The story is told in multiple timelines and there a lot of characters and at times a little slow. The writing is very lyrical which fits the narrative so well and Julia Kwamya did a great job bringing the story to life.

Thank you @sjplit @dreamscape_media for a copy of this book.

Description
When Bonnie and Mansour meet in New York in 1968, his piercing gaze in a downtown jazz club threatens to carry her away. Their connection is undeniable. Both from fractured homes, with childhoods spent crossing the Atlantic, they quickly find peace with each other. And as Mansour’s soaring Senegalese melodies continue to break new ground, keeping time with the sound of revolution and taking him and Bonnie from Paris to Rio and Switzerland, it seems as though happiness might finally be around the corner for them both.

Then Mansour goes missing. His Spanish tour was only meant to last three weeks, but three months later, he and his band have not returned. In his absence, Bonnie reckons with her memories of him, and comes to understand that the hopes of so many women: her mother and grandmother; his mother, aunt, childhood friends rest on her perseverance. Stirred by the life growing inside her, Bonnie puts a plan in action to find him.

Spanning two decades and moving through the hotbeds of the African diaspora, They Dream in Gold is an epic yet intimate exploration of the migrant hunger for belonging and a powerful, intergenerational testament to our shared humanity, for lovers of Tara Stringfellow’s Memphis and Abi Daré’s The Girl with the Louding Voice.

My Take:
I had the opportunity to receive the Advanced Listening Copy (ALC) of this book and focused on the clarity and rhythm of the narrator, Julia Kwamya. As someone accustomed to American English, I found the foreign passages and phrases understandable and the accents to be well-executed. The audiobook, with its 11 hours of content, served as an excellent background companion that allowed for attentive listening as well as the freedom to drift and return without losing track. The narrative was skillfully crafted, culminating in a satisfying full-circle conclusion. It would make an excellent choice for book clubs, appealing to both intergenerational and multicultural audiences.

They Dream in Gold is a multigenerational story that takes place in many locales. Bonnie and Montour meet when Montour is a blooming musician and Bonnie works in a record store. I loved the jazzy feel when the conversation turned toward Montour's ambitions and jazz clubs. As the story unfolds, Montour disappears while on tour. The families gather in support and backstories are revealed about the characters. The women in particular are a strong force throughout this story.

This is a saga and a bit of a love story following Bonnie and Montour over decades and continents. I listened to this narration by Julia Kwamya. Her voice is easy to follow and I stayed connected to the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Select.