Gold Diggers

One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2021 * One of NPR's Best Books of 2021 * New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * Long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize “Dizzyingly original, fiercely funny, deeply wise.” —Celeste Ng, #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere “Sanjena Sathian’s Gold Diggers is a work of 24-karat genius.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post How far would you go for a piece of the American dream? A magical realist coming-of-age story, Gold Diggers skewers the model minority myth to tell a hilarious and moving story about immigrant identity, community, and the underside of ambition. A floundering second-generation teenager growing up in the Bush-era Atlanta suburbs, Neil Narayan is funny and smart but struggles to bear the weight of expectations of his family and their Asian American enclave. He tries to want their version of success, but mostly, Neil just wants his neighbor across the cul-de-sac, Anita Dayal. When he discovers that Anita is the beneficiary of an ancient, alchemical potion made from stolen gold—a “lemonade” that harnesses the ambition of the gold’s original owner—Neil sees his chance to get ahead. But events spiral into a tragedy that rips their community apart. Years later in the Bay Area, Neil still bristles against his community's expectations—and finds he might need one more hit of that lemonade, no matter the cost. Sanjena Sathian’s astonishing debut offers a fine-grained, profoundly intelligent, and bitingly funny investigation into what's required to make it in America. Soon to be a series produced by Mindy Kaling!

Between 1896 and 1899, thousands of people lured by gold braved a grueling journey into the remote wilderness of North America. Within two years, Dawson City, in the Canadian Yukon, grew from a mining camp of four hundred to a raucous town of over thirty thousand people. The stampede to the Klondike was the last great gold rush in history. Scurvy, dysentery, frostbite, and starvation stalked all who dared to be in Dawson. And yet the possibilities attracted people from all walks of life—not only prospectors but also newspapermen, bankers, prostitutes, priests, and lawmen. Gold Diggers follows six stampeders—Bill Haskell, a farm boy who hungered for striking gold; Father Judge, a Jesuit priest who aimed to save souls and lives; Belinda Mulrooney, a twenty–four–year–old who became the richest businesswoman in town; Flora Shaw, a journalist who transformed the town's governance; Sam Steele, the officer who finally established order in the lawless town; and most famously Jack London, who left without gold, but with the stories that would make him a legend. Drawing on letters, memoirs, newspaper articles, and stories, Charlotte Gray delivers an enthralling tale of the gold madness that swept through a continent and changed a landscape and its people forever.

The international bestseller! The book beaches were made for! When New York billionaire Adam Gold moves to London, every red-blooded woman wants to get him into bed...and down the aisle. Karin is a successful fashion entrepreneur and London's most glamorous socialite. Her name is synonymous with style and class, and Adam Gold could be her perfect accessory -- but can the whispers surrounding her ex-husband's death keep her from her prize? Erin, a young, naïve country girl with literary aspirations, never dreamed of traveling in such lofty social circles until she finds herself in the role of Adam's personal assistant and protégé. As her sights grow higher, the promise of riches, and lust for her handsome boss, threaten everything she once valued. Molly, a fading eighties supermodel, can't seem to leave her glory days, or her expensive drug habit, in the past. Ultracompetitive, unabashedly ruthless, Molly will risk everything to secure the man who may be her last chance at marriage. Summer, Molly's daughter, is an innocent beauty living in the shadow of her famous mother. When she lands a television deal and becomes the latest "it girl," Adam Gold takes notice. From Monte Carlo to Lake Como, St. Moritz to St. Barts, Gold Diggers takes a heady journey through the social circuit of the superrich into a world of sizzling passion, ruthless ambition and scorching betrayal.

The stereotype of the "gold digger" has had a fascinating trajectory in twentieth-century America, from tales of greedy flapper-era chorus girls to tabloid coverage of Anna Nicole Smith and her octogenarian tycoon husband. The term entered American vernacular in the 1910s as women began to assert greater power over courtship, marriage, and finances, threatening men's control of legal and economic structures. Over the course of the century, the gold digger stereotype reappeared as women pressed for further control over love, sex, and money while laws failed to keep pace with such realignments. The gold digger can be seen in silent films, vaudeville jokes, hip hop lyrics, and reality television. Whether feared, admired, or desired, the figure of the gold digger appears almost everywhere gender, sexuality, class, and race collide. This fascinating interdisciplinary work reveals the assumptions and disputes around women's sexual agency in American life, shedding new light on the cultural and legal forces underpinning romantic, sexual, and marital relationships.

Can a man with money ever find true love? That's the question Caleb Peterson continually asks himself in this novelization of Je'Caryous Johnson's national hit play of the same name. Caleb Peterson has it all-a great job, plenty of money, and a fine fiancee in former model Paisley Terrell. They're all set to get married just as soon as she signs a prenuptial agreement, but there's just one problem..."Paisley don't do pre-nups!" As war wages and trusts start to crumble, it turns into an all-out battle of the sexes. Paisley's best friend, Trina, tries to convince her to "get paid," while Caleb's friends try to prevent him from "getting played." With her relationship in jeopardy, Paisley turns to ex-boyfriend Bobby Trumane, who promises to give her everything her heart desires. Paisley soon realizes that what one man won't do, another man will...but is that what she wants?

It’s 2008 and the height of Zimbabwe’s economic demise. A group of passengers is huddled in a Toyota Quantum about to embark on a treacherous expedition to the City of Gold. Amongst them is Gugulethu, who is hoping to be reconciled with her mother; Dumisani, an ambitious young man who believes he will strike it rich, Chamunorwa and Chenai, twins running from their troubled past; and Portia and Nkosi, a mother and son desperate to be reunited with a husband and father they see once a year. They have paid a high price for the dangerous passage to what they believe is a better life; an escape from the vicious vagaries of their present life in Bulawayo. In their minds, the streets of Johannesburg are paved with gold but they will have to dig deep to get close to any gold, dirtying themselves in the process. Told with brave honesty and bold description, the stories of the individual immigrants are simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming.

ENTER THE WORLD OF “GUCCI, GLITZ, AND GLAMOUR”* IN THIS DELICIOUSLY DECADENT LOOK INTO THE LIVES OF THE YOUNG, THE RICH, THE BEAUTIFUL, AND THE CONNIVING Paulette, Gillian, and Reese are three gold diggers who have dollar signs in their eyes and gold digging in their DNA. Lauren is Paulette’s pampered cousin who never fails to remind Paulette of how different their lives have always been—Lauren the daughter of wealthy black urbanites and Paulette the daughter of the family black sheep who married “beneath her family pedigree.” Paulette will stop at nothing—not even sleeping with her cousin Lauren’s husband—to gain the social status she feels she rightfully deserves. Gillian is a second-generation gold digger and, having learned from the best, strategically sleeps her way to Hollywood—but does she have the talent to be a lasting star? Reese is a career basketball groupie turned NBA trophy wife, and she wears it well, taking advantage of everything her new position affords; but when she finds out that DL may be more than just her husband’s best friend’s initials, she may be forced to realize that all that glitters isn’t gold. The stunningly beautiful, well-bred, but naïve Lauren is the secret envy of her friends. She seems to have all the creature comforts money can buy, but when she’s confronted with a crisis of her own, just how will she respond?

'Excruciatingly powerful' ANTONY BEEVOR 'A brilliant, harrowing, powerful novel' DAILY MAIL 'Faulks is a prodigiously talented writer' NEW YORK TIMES In the black of night, a woman lands on the fields of Occupied France. Charlotte Grey is on a mission for the British government to deliver a message and must shed her identity to blend into the small town of Lavaurette. But Charlotte has her own secret, her lover, airman Peter Gregory is missing in action, and she will risk everything to find him. A million-copy bestseller, Charlotte Gray is enthralling story of love, deceit and courage, and a classic of spy literature.