They Dream In Gold

Sennaar debuts with a remarkable chronicle of a young couple separated by mysterious circumstances and their families’ attempts to forge better lives in the American South and Senegal. In 1969, Bonnie Ndoye, a young African American woman, is pregnant and living in Switzerland with her Senegalese mother-in-law, Mama Eva. It’s been three months since Bonnie has heard from her husband, Mansour, a singer who recently toured Spain to promote his first album, and who should have returned by now. She can’t help but wonder if Mansour has abandoned her and their child, recalling how her own mother, Claudine, neglected her as a girl in the 1950s to become a ballerina. Eventually, Sennaar reveals the source of the Ndoyes’ generational trauma, showing how Claudine’s emotionally distant mother witnessed the murder of her civil rights lawyer father as a teen. A parallel narrative follows Mama Eva, who abandoned a young Mansour for Paris, where she toiled as a dishwasher, and is now about to realize her life-long dream of opening a Senegalese restaurant. Sennaar impresses with her colorful cast of characters and deep well of stories. It’s a stunner. Agent: Mariah Stovall, Trellis Literary. (July)