Uriel’s sights are set on a title out next month in this newest installment of Books I’m Excited About. Read on for more!
My favorite novels have always been the kind that dazzle me with their originality and brim with an aching familiarity. Sanjena Sathian’s Gold Diggers does both.
Set in a sleepy Atlanta suburb at the height of the GW Bush years, this second-gen immigrant bildungsroman takes readers across space and time, introducing and re-introducing us to parents, friends, lovers all striving for an amorphous sense of success at a lofty premium. Their secret? A centuries-old elixir that’s one part smelted gold purloined from its especially well-to-do owner and another part lemonade. Yes, drink it and all your dreams will be realized. But, as with any Faustian bargain such as this, there is a catch. And the catch for go-getting Neil and Anita plays out over the course of their adult years.
The result is a strange brew that serves as both a biting critique of today’s peculiar anxieties—concerning status, finding purpose in late-stage capitalism—and a meditation on the perils of history and memory, inherited traumas and impossible aspirations. And yet, the book is tremendously funny and unremittingly tender. Sathian’s voice is a sure one and echoes with wisdom. This debut’s returns are priceless. And luckily, y’all don’t have to wait so long for this one. Gold Diggers is out early April and I want to be the reason this one’s on your radar sooner rather than later!
You can pre-order Gold Diggers (out April 6th, 2021) from BookPeople today and take many sips of regular ol’ lemonade as you wait.
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