#BlogTour Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian

 It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian - *Soon to be a TV series produced by Mindy Kaling*

About the Author

A Paul and Daisy Soros fellow, Sanjena Sathian is a 2019 graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has worked as a reporter in Mumbai and San Francisco, with nonfiction bylines for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Food & Wine, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, and more. And her award-winning short fiction has been published in Boulevard, Joyland, Salt Hill, and The Master's Review. Follow @sanjenasathian on Twitter, Visit sanjena.com

About the book

Neil Narayan's parents moved to America for a better life, and his perfect older sister is now headed to an elite university. Neil is funny and smart, but he is not living up to his parents' dream. While he tries to want their version of success, mostly, Neil just wants his neighbour across the street, Anita Dayal.

Once a lot like Neil, Anita is truly thriving academically, athletically and socially. Anita has a secret: she and her mother Anjali have been brewing an ancient alchemical potion from stolen gold that harnesses the ambition of the jewellery's original owner. Anita just needs a little boost to get into Harvard. When Neil - who needs a whole lot more - stumbles onto their secret and joins in the plot, events spiral into a tragedy that rips their community apart.

Ten years later, Neil is an oft-stoned history grad student studying the California gold rush. Anita has given up her high-flying tech career and is working as an event planner, just for now. Anjali, the woman who gave them both so much, is in trouble, and only gold can save her. What choice do Anita and Neil have but to pull off one last heist?

Review

I loved the whole alchemy and magical realism aspect of this story and the way history, colonialism, racism is the beginning and the ghosts of the past are the companion at the end. Achievement, success can hardly be differentiated between greed and wealth, which is often synonymous with the word success.

I guess it depends on frame of reference, because although I found this an incredibly intriguing read with vast depth - I didn't find it funny or amusing. Instead I couldn't help but feel the enormity of the pressure put on these children, young women and men, to achieve and adhere to rules and the expectations of their families and the society they are born into.

What a heavy burden to carry, perhaps one that could make certain people crumble and bend with the weight. What if the burden could be lifted by an advantage? That's the crux at the core of this story. Are Neil and Anita merely doing what they can to lessen the burden by achieving whatever they set their minds to by stealing the talents, the futures, the mojo of others - or is this just pure and simple greed.

It's a read steeped in culture, history, myth and magical realism. Sathian certainly has her finger on the pulse of the inner workings of the culture embedded in this read and is a great storyteller to boot. This is the kind of multi-layered story that delivers no matter which thread you follow or relate to the most.

Buy Gold Diggers at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Simon & Schuster Uk; pub date 19 August 2021 -Hardback - £14.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Homecoming by Luan Goldie

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Homecoming by Luan Goldie. Her first novel Nightingale Point was a success and I am convinced her second novel Homecoming will be too.

About the Author

Luan Goldie is a primary school teacher , and formerly a business journalist. She has written several short stories and is the winner of the Costa Short Story Award 2017 for her short story ‘Two Steak Bakes and Two Chelsea Buns’. She was also shortlisted for the London Short Story Prize in 2018 and the Grazia/Orange First Chapter competition in 2012, and was chosen to take part in the Almasi League, an Arts Council-funded mentorship programme for emerging writers of colour.

In 2019 she was shortlisted for the h100 awards in the Publishing and Writing category. Her debut novel, Nightingale Point, is longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 and it was also a Radio 2 Book Club pick. Homecoming is her second novel.

Follow @luangoldie on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Instagram, on Amazon, Buy Homecoming

About the book

For Years Yvonne has tried to keep her demons buried and focus on moving forward. But her guilt is always with her and weighs heavily on her heart.

Kiama has had to grow up without a mother, and while there is so much he remembers about her, there is still plenty he doesn't know. And there's only one person who can fill in the gaps.

When Kiama seeks Yvonne out and asks her to come with him to Kenya, the place that holds the answers to his questions, she knows she can't refuse. And this one act sets in motion an unravelling of the past that no one is ready for.

Review
Kiama wants to connect with the mother he barely remembers. He thinks his mother's best friend Yvonne will be able to answer some questions but more importantly he needs someone who knows what he is going through to go back to Kenya with him to get some closure. To revisit her life, the things that made her happy and the memories of the two of them that he treasures. It also means going back to the story of her death.

Yvonne has her own secrets and guilt to both hide and deal with. She is torn between giving Kiama an attempt at some level of peace and not wanting to destroy the image he has of her and his loved ones. Their trip could change everything.

It's a story of love, betrayal and ultimately one of closure. An emotive piece of work that always manages to steer away from excessive dramatic scenes and yet simultaneously walks a very tight rope of emotions. Feelings that have been stored away and ignored for years until a young man who needs to understand his inner conflict and unresolved trauma reopens old wounds.

Whether intentionally or not Goldie gives an excellent image of what happens when people go back and revisit the past in person. The expectations are always built on memories and never take into consideration that the world and the people in it move on, which means there will always be a level of disappointment.

If you haven't read anything by Luan Goldie yet, I highly suggest you give her books a try. She has a fresh and creative voice and is absolutely a rising star and an author to watch. 

Buy Homecoming at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: HQ; pub date 6 Aug. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.

Read my review of Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie.

#BlogTour One Year of Ugly by Caroline Mackenzie

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour for One Year of Ugly by Caroline Mackenzie.

About the Author
Caroline Mackenzie is a freelance translator living in Trinidad with her husband and son. A national scholar, she studied in the UK on an Open Scholarship for four years to qualify as a specialist translator before returning to her native Trinidad, where she began writing more extensively. Her short fiction has appeared in literary publications around the world, and in 2017 she was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2018 she was named the Short Fiction winner of the Small Axe Literary Competition. One Year of Ugly is her first novel, and the TV rights have already been snapped up by Netflix.

Follow @carolinemackenziewrites on Instagram, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Buy One Year of Ugly

About the book
Having escaped crumbling, socialist Venezuela, Yola Palacios and her family are settling into their new under-the-radar life in Trinidad.

But when the formidable* Aunt Celia dies, the Palacios discover that she’s been keeping one hell of a secret. She’s seriously in debt to a local criminal called Ugly, a debt that is now theirs to repay.

He might dress like David Bowie, but Ugly’s business style is pure Pablo Escobar. What he says, the Palacios must do, otherwise: big trouble. Ugly’s right-hand man Román is tasked with keeping an eye on the family but Yola can barely keep her eyes off him. Forbidden fruit is the original aphrodisiac, and when Yola and Román fall in lust, even bigger trouble is on the horizon…

Told with raw, acid humour, One Year of Ugly is a story of family, first love and finding home. A blisteringly fresh take on the migrant experience, set in a beautiful corner of the Caribbean, and a poignant reminder that no matter what form of ugly crosses your path, there’s always a way to laugh through it.
(*family bitch)

Review
The Palacios family are migrants from Venezuela living in Trinidad, having sought refuge from the dismal situation in their country of origin.When Aunt Celia dies the Palacios family mourn the fact this foul-mouthed wise woman has gone, especially Yola who felt understood by her more than anyone else in her family.

That's until Ugly, a successful and ruthless coyote, turns up to tell them he expects the family to honour the really high debts Celia left behind. They become a cog in his relocation package company, which awakens emotions and unexpected thoughts about their fellow countrymen, and for Yola the debt comes with a more conflicting surprise.

I absolutely loved the way the author approached the story, the often controversial topics and the vibrancy with which it is written. There are no punches pulled. There are no moments of redressing situations, messages and characters. Thoughts are just thrown out there with wilful abandonment and simultaneously with a cunning accuracy. Don't be fooled by the snark and tomfoolery.

There is one chapter in particular I found myself drawn to, probably because I've experienced it, but also due to the fact that people who haven't experienced it never quite understand what it feels like. 'A pall of Otherness' - it's absolutely a thing. How other that Otherness is depends on your nationality, race, ethnicity, colour and shade of skin, and where you experience it.

I think my mantra should now be, according to the wise words of old Aunt Celia - 'Life is a big piece of sugarcane' - obviously what she means is open to quite a few interpretations, but hey-ho I am up for sucking the sweetness out of life.

Yup, that's exactly what you get from Mackenzie, a bittersweet symphony of life as the majority of us don't know it and are quite happy to ignore from the safety of our secure walls and borders. The perhaps most poignant point of this story is the hypocrisy of those who should be able to comprehend the problems of migrant families, and indeed those without the legal paperwork, and yet they often turn into the very people driven by throwback attitudes of colonialism and privilege.

Also, on a softer note, the touching message in this story about allowing yourself to reach for your dreams even when the world tells you it's a waste of time. Life passes by so quickly that dreams are often buried and forgotten. The story is absolutely a statement about illegal migrants living in political limbo, and one about being humane when the atmosphere around us suggests otherwise, but it is also very much one of hope.

Buy One Year of Ugly at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: The Borough Press / Hardback £12.99 / eBook £7.99 / pub date 14th May 2020. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Waterstones.

#BlogTour Children of War by Ahmet Yorulma

Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Children of War by Ahmet Yorulma, translated from Turkish by Paula Darwish.

About the Author
Ahmet Yorulmaz was a Turkish a journalist, author and translator. He was born in Ayvalik to a family of Cretan Turks deported to mainland Turkey as part of the Greek-Turkish population exchange decreed in the Treaty of Lausanne. He was fluent in modern Greek and translated novels and poems from contemporary Greek literature to Turkish.

Most of his original works were written with the aim of making people learn about Ayvalık, the city where he grew up. He dedicated himself to Greek-Turkish friendship and rapprochement.

About the Translator
Paula Darwish is a freelance translator and professional musician. She read Turkish Language and Literature with Middle Eastern History at SOAS in London graduating with a First in 1997. She is a qualified member of the Institute of Translators and Interpreters (MITI).

Follow Ahmet Yorulma on Goodreads, Buy Children of War

About the book
Hassanakis is a young Muslim boy of Turkish descent growing up on Crete during WWI. Fifteen generations of his family have lived on the island and until now he has never had any reason not to think he is a Cretan. But with the Great Powers tussling over the collapsing Ottoman Empire and the island’s Christians in rebellion, an outbreak of ethnic violence forces his family to flee to the Cretan city of Chania.

He begins to lay down roots and his snappy dress earns him the nickname of Hassan ‘the mirror’. As WWI draws to a close and the Turkish War of Independence rages, he begins a heady romance with
the elegant Hüsniye. There are rumours that the Cretan Muslims will be sent to Turkey but Hassanakis can’t believe he will be sent to a country whose language he barely knows and where he knows no-one.

Review
My bad, I had no idea the history of Crete was such a geo-political minefield and that the migration associated with it was so complex. A powder-keg of two national identities and religions who live together peacefully, until pot-stirrers looking for power and acknowledgment stoke hatred, which sets the two against each other.

Hassanakis is a young boy, a Muslim boy of Turkish descent who only knows peace and friendship between the Turks and the Cretans of Greek descent. His father starts to speak about rumours of dissent and trouble aimed at anyone of Turkish descent. His fear and paranoia seem to be pulled out of thin air, as he uproots his family to head for a safer location.

The violence they and others encounter leaves a permanent stain on the family as they find themselves in the middle of ethnic violence. People who have lived on Crete for many generations and yet now find themselves without jobs, businesses and homes. They are targeted, attacked, raped, murdered and those left living become displaced persons.

It's historical, geo-political fiction or rather a fictional family in the midst of a factual historical setting.

One of my favourite things about this book is the conversations it can generate. After reading it I had a chat with a fellow book enthusiast about the history, so the author achieves both a story and a history lesson at the same time. Now that may not sound interesting to some readers, but it does serve an important purpose.

In times where the curriculum can no longer fit every single bit of history in and the history of the country you live in supersedes the majority of other countries history - many important moments get lost. The kind of important historical moments that help to explain old animosity and scars, conflicts that are often continued over decades and centuries.

It's a fascinating story of upheaval, displacement and national identity.

Buy Children of War at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Neem Tree Press; pub date 26 Mar. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Family Tree by Sairish Hussain

Today it's my turn and also the end of the fantastic BlogTour The Family Tree by Sairish Hussain.

About the Author
Sairish Hussain was born and brought up in Bradford, West Yorkshire. She studied English Language and Literature at the University of Huddersfield and progressed onto an MA in Creative Writing. Sairish completed her PhD in 2019 after being awarded the university's Vice-Chancellor's Scholarship. The Family Tree is her debut novel and she is now writing her second book.

Follow @sairish_hussain on Twitter, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Buy The Family Tree

About the book
Amjad never imagined he'd be a single father. But, when tragedy strikes, he must step up for his two children - while his world falls apart.

Saahil dreams of providing for his dad and little sister. But his life is about to take an unexpected turn.

The baby of the family, Zahra, is shielded from the worst the world has to offer. But, as she grows up, she wonders if she can rely on anyone but herself.

There's no such thing as an easy journey. But when life sends the family in different directions, will they take their own paths - or find their way back to each other?

Emotional and real, The Family Tree is the story of one ordinary family - and how it's the extraordinary moments that define us all.

Review
This story moves through the decades as Amjad and his two young children come to terms with the death of his wife, their mother. As Saahil's life is destroyed by another tragedy and then as Zahra faces her own difficulties as a young woman.

At the very core this is a story about family. About their love for each other and how their culture both defines, cultivates and both strengthens or weakens it. How family relationships change when they are put under immense pressure or go through a traumatic experience.

Hussain doesn't stop there though - she uses this story of family to broach topics that are at the very heart of societies that struggle with multicultural identities.

Privilege, specifically white privilege, can't be changed if those with privilege are unable to comprehend what their privilege entails or what it means in the grand scheme of life. I often see comments saying that it isn't the job of minorities or non-whites to teach white people what privilege means. My answer to that is - you can't expect them to acknowledge something they aren't even aware of, because they don't have to deal with oppression, racism, discrimination on a daily basis.

They have no clue what it's like to not even make the shortlisting pile because the colour of their skin is too dark, their name sounds too foreign, their religion or race conjures up stereotypical tropes. To be the token person that a company needs to have to show they are diverse.

The author blends these issues that define the professional lives of both Zahra and Saahil into the story, as they also struggle to survive the anger and misconceptions of the trauma that keeps them apart.

It hit the right emotional tone for me. It has the frank and honest feel of a family in the midst of a struggle. It hurts at times, it brings tears to the eyes and it also makes you smile. It's a contemporary cultural read about family.

Buy The Family Tree at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.  Published by HQ: pub date 20th February 2020, Hardback £12.99 - Available in ebook and Audio. Buy at Amazon com.

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

Review
Education equals louding voice, which in turn will enable Adunni to make decisions and speak for herself. It's what her mother always told her, but her mother is dead and Adunni has taken her place in the family. With a family to feed and rent to pay Adunni becomes the only commodity her father has, so he sells her to a local man. A third wife to be, her dreams wither and die.

Things come to a head and fourteen-year-old Adunni runs away and ends up in the hands of a scrupulous criminal who sells her into servitude. There she again works as an unpaid skivvy and is mistreated by her mistress. No matter where she turns there seems to be the same result.

At first she doesn't question the girls who have trodden in her footsteps before her, but there is something about the last girl that doesn't quite sit right. What really happened to Rebecca and is there something or someone Adunni should be afraid of?

One of the saddest and most poignant moments in the book is when you realise that the story of Adunni isn't set in the past. It's set in modern day Nigeria, and because of that it is absolutely heartbreaking. Her status as a girl means living as the subservient daughter, the obedient wife and lastly as the servant who is treated worse than a stray dog. Such is the life of her gender. No power, no choice and no voice.

I loved the use of language as a tool to show progress and oppression in the same breath. Daré keeps the entire story on the level of the teenage girl, and yet it simultaneously screams out the unfairness of the adulthood which has been forced upon her.

It's a contemporary cultural read - a strong reminder of the stark contrast of life for women outside of the high walls of Western civilisation.

Buy The Girl with the Louding Voice at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.  Publisher: Sceptre; pub date 5 Mar. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.

Follow @abidaré_author on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon,

The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola

Folklore is a way of passing on the stories of a people and their culture. It is also a way of passing on mythology and fairy-tales to the next generations. Folklore fuels fear, paranoia and mistrust, but it can also be conducive to bonding, feeling safe and a sense of community, especially on an isolated island.

Audrey has taken a job on the remote island of Skye in order to connect with her past and escape from the present. She has been employed to collect the stories of the islanders, the tales of the fae folk. The stories that can compel people to set fire to young girls or bury babies alive, in order to keep the fae happy.

They aren't the cute tiny magical beings of fairy tales changed to be more kid friendly, they are the creatures of nightmares and shadows of daymares. This is what the islanders believe, and also the reason every single possible crime and odd event is automatically blamed on the fae.

When young girls start going missing and one of them turns up dead the rumours are clear, the fae have reason to be displeased and are taking the girls. Audrey thinks there is a more human element to the situation, but is distracted and blocked at every turn of her attempt to gain clarity. It isn't long before the fae start to show her the error of her ways.

I really enjoyed the way the author hid a crime story in the middle of this tale of folklore, magic and paranoia. Mazzola hits the nail on the head when it comes to the seclusion of the population and the almost hermit-like behaviour of the majority of the population. She doesn't neglect the reasons for the hunger, despair and cruelty, which drives many of them into an early grave or on to supposedly greener pastures.

Mazzola gives the reader a combination of an old school classic vibe with a contemporary feel to it. A sort of Jane Eyre meets Christie, and a wee gothic atmosphere mixed in to boot.

Buy The Story Keeper at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Kindle Pub. Date 31st May 2018, Hardcover 26 July 2018 (Tinder Press)
Follow @Anna_Mazz @TinderPress
Visit Annamazzola.com