"A Great Country" by Shilpi Somaya Gowda is a poignant exploration of immigrant identity, family dynamics, and the complexities of life in America. The Shah parents immigrate to the United States, where they build a life and raise their three children. Rooted in the belief of the American Dream and the value of hard work, their world is shaken when their 12-year-old son, Ajay, is arrested, prompting them to question their place in their adopted country.

Against the backdrop of Pacific Hills, California, Gowda delves into themes of privilege, social class, race, and the myth of the model minority. The dynamic between the Shahs' two daughters adds depth to the story, with them each navigating their teenage years in contrasting ways — one daughter passionately engages in social activism, while the other seeks acceptance within their affluent community.

Through rich character development and thought-provoking storytelling, the author invites readers to reflect on the complexities of identity and belonging in contemporary America. "A Great Country" offers an insightful and nuanced examination of the immigrant experience and the challenges faced by marginalized communities.

Overall, "A Great Country" prompts important conversations about privilege, identity, and social justice. It offers an insightful exploration of these themes and I would recommend it for anyone interested in exploring and better understanding the complexities of the American experience.

4.5/5

A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda packs a powerful punch! Tackling topics such as racial bias and class divides, Gowda explores what it means to be the "model minority" in America. Sometimes, you can do everything right, and things still turn out all wrong.

After coming to the US for graduate school, Ashok Shah thought he was escaping the class issues prevalent in India. He and Priya have always made decisions based on giving their children the best lives possible. With his business flourishing and having just made the move to a more affluent neighborhood, Ashok felt his family was finally on the right track.

That is until one Saturday evening when Priya receives a call from the Orange County Jail. Their son Ajay has been arrested! In their rush to get to him, they struggle to understand what happened and why their son is in an adult facility when he's only twelve years old!

There are so many layers to A Great Country. As a mother, I identified with Priya's worries and concerns. Sometimes, it feels like we're always questioning our decisions, wondering if we're truly doing what's best. As a woman, it was encouraging to watch the enduring, heartfelt friendship between Priya and Archie, whom Priya met soon after settling in the US. That sense of support and community is so important in life. I also appreciated Gowda's exploration of the complex angles in the Shah family's story. It was eye-opening to read about issues I've never considered, such as the antiquated caste system in India and its carry-over in America.

I don't want to give anything away, but trust me, A Great Country is well worth the read! So many layers and so much to consider! It's available today and would be perfect for book clubs or buddy reads as there are a plethora of topics for discussion!

Read this if you like:
• Books that explore complex topics
• Strong female friendships
• Cultural heritage fiction

“A Great Country,” by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Mariner Books, 256 pages, March 26, 2024.

Pacific Hills, California: Gated communities, ocean views, well-tended lawns, serene pools, and now the new home of Ashok and Priya Shah and their children Deepa, Maya and Ajay. The parents motto has always been work hard and don’t make waves.

Ajay Shah, 12, is in a jail cell. His parents, who are unaware of his arrest, are at a party at their friends, the Sharmas. They thought he was at the robotics lab at school. Deepa, who was supposed to pick up Maya and Ajay, is at a pro-immigration rally. The fallout from the arrest will shake each family member’s perception of themselves.

The story that follows is fairly predictable, as each family member comes to change their thinking over the course of the book. I didn’t connect with the characters and I think it gave too much detail of the lives of minor characters. The plot was inconsistent. This just wasn’t for me.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I sat down to read A Great Country when my Internet went down for half a day. A Great Country was the perfect book to fill the time. Before I knew it, I had read the entire book. The novel is much stronger on plot than it is for its character development. The story - a family whose parents immigrated to the US from India two decades earlier is on its way to assimilating into an upscale predominantly white neighborhood when their young, 12-year old Ajay, is picked up by the police for flying his homemade drone over a local airport. Although undiagnosed, away is clearly "on the spectrum" and his dad turns to a wealthy fellow entrepreneur, also Indian, for help. In the end, though, it is old friends who provide the family with the support it needs while the case is taken up not only by the criminal justice system but by a group advocating for racial justice. The relationship between mom and the mother of a similarly-aged black boy who was murdered seems artificial, and the characters are not really explored in any depth, but most of this novel tells a realistic and important story of immigration, discrimination, and relationships, among other important topics. Recommended..

This is a fantastic book. Every Indian person who has emigrated to the USA or has family who has emigrated there will find that the story resonates with them. Ashok and Priya moved to USA in pursuit of the American dream. They believe that they have more or less achieved that on the professional front and are raising a family of three children in the plush neighborhood of Pacific Hills in California. The kids are all American born American citizens and Ashok and Priya have also obtained American citizenship. And the kids are inevitably growing up American no matter their exposure to Indian values and way of life at home. Despite all these efforts to become American, Ashok and Priya find that their brown skin sets them apart. When their younger son Ajay gets into an altercation with the police, the ingrained discrimination and prejudices become all the more apparent. The author has written the story in a very candid, very nuanced manner with a lot of attention to detail. What unfolds is a vivid picture of immigrant life in the great country, the USA. A must read. I loved it.

Thank you Netgalley, Mariner Books and Shilpi Somaya Gowda for the ARC

The Shah family came to the US 20 years earlier to escape the confines and prejudices of the Indian caste system so that they can succeed and create a new and better life for themselves and their children with hard work and education. They thought they had accomplished this after moving from Irvine to a newer and fancier neighborhood with gates, pools and home associations. However, one day their 12 year old neurodivergent son is arrested and roughed up by the police for playing with his drone by an airport because the police thought because of the color of his skin, that he could possibly be a terrorist. After this and the fallout, the Shahs come to realize that their fancier home and education cannot protect them from the US’ version of its hierarchical system, built with discrimination and historical disadvantages.

✨My Review✨

While the messages of this book were really interesting and thought provoking, I wish the characters had had more depth - I felt that each was more a symbol of a viewpoint than an actual person. Had each character been more developed and not as much there to carry through a point, this novel could have been really great. I thought how the author paralleled the caste system in India with the historical disadvantages of minorities in the US was excellent and so I still enjoyed the story and the message, I just kept wishing for a bit more.

3.75 stars (rounded up to 4)

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the ARC to review

Ashok and Prima Shah are hard working Indian immigrants who have just moved their family to an affluent neighborhood as they pride themselves on how far they have come. Their oldest daughter Deepa is unhappy with the move and prefers the old neighborhood where there was more diversity and less pretentiousness. Middle daughter Maya has reinvented herself to fit in with her new peers and the youngest, Ajay just wants to fly his drones and build his Lego in peace.
When 12 yr old Ajay is arrested, their family is turned upside down as they navigate the systemic racism they have no choice to confront. Being a part of the model minority won't save them from their brown skin and the judgement of others, especially the law enforcement office who arrested their young son. Ashok and Priya also come to realize who their real friends and supporters are as they continue to assimilate themselves and their children in the US.
This book really hit home for me as I am also a brown skinned child of immigrants and part of the model minority. Many South Asians are quiet and submissive and just keep their heads down as to not attract attention as they assimilate and my experience growing up shared some of these similarities. An excellent read with a lot to think about.
Thank you to Mariner Books and Netgalley for an advance digital copy of this book.

A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda is a poignant and unforgettable novel.
Gowda touches on some pretty important topics here in this story.
The well crafted characters really had me hooked to the story, their journey was tough.
This is one of those books you sort of get swept up in, with its great storytelling this was an excellent read.

Thank You NetGalley and Mariner Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

An important and relevant book, the story was one I couldn’t put down. Priya and Ashok left India to find the American dream, moving to California, working hard and starting a family. Their youngest child, a 12 year old neurodivergent boy, is arrested by the police and mistreated. Charged with trespassing and other crimes after innocently testing out a homemade drone, Ajay spends six hours in an adult prison while his parents try to figure out what happened. Immediately the press jumps to conclusions, calling the Hindu family Muslim and questioning ties to jihadists, which was not at all what this hard working family was, but also opened their eyes to what prejudice and discrimination could exist, as it did in India, I highly recommend this fast moving story. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Shilpi Somaya Gowda, and Mariner Books for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

I liked this! A Great Country addresses many important topics regarding the current state of police and racial profiling from the perspective of an affected family. This book definitely had several thought-provoking scenarios, and I appreciated seeing the growth of each member of the Shah family. The characters were all rich, and ultimately, the story was well-developed. This is a short read that I flew through, and I do think the overall book could have benefitted from being a little longer. My biggest complaint was that it was very "tell, not show", which is not my favorite style of writing. It felt like Gowda would have each character come to this revelatory moment and then "tell" why exactly it was in a huge paragraph stating slightly-obvious things. It didn't detract from the novel or my enjoyment of it as a whole, but it made the book just feel a bit more amateur.

Thanks to NetGalley, BookClubGirl, and MarinerBooks for this copy of "A Great Country."

The story starts with 12-year-old Ajay in a jail cell, asking if he can talk to his parents. We're wondering why he's there and why his parents haven't been notified? We learn the details later and then he and his family are hounded by the press.

His parents have always believed that "good immigrants" work hard, play by the rules, and eventually get ahead. However, they learn that they have fled one strict hierarchy in India 20 years ago only to find another in the US.

The sad but realistic part is that everyone (law enforcement, parents, siblings) did what they felt was right at the time. Credit to author Gowda for making the family members so interesting and real and relatable as they struggle with social issues facing all of us.

An Indian-American family whose teenage children were born in the United States struggles when they move to a nicer neighborhood in the LA area. This is a very readable book with lots to discuss but it's fairly short length and the multiple important topics covered had it lacking some needed depth. Still worthy of reading.

Ashok Shah and his wife, Priya, are an upwardly mobile Indian American couple who have recently moved with their three children to the upscale, gated community of Pacific Hills, California. When the novel opens, the Shahs are at a dinner party hosted by Vikram Sharma, the wealthy founder of a medical technology company whom Ashok had met at a networking event for Indian entrepreneurs. While at the party, the Shahs receive a call that their 12 year old son, Ajay (who is likely on the spectrum but never diagnosed), had been arrested outside of John Wayne Airport for flying a homemade drone. When the Shahs come to the jail to collect their traumatized son, it was apparent that Ajay, who his parents insist made an “honest mistake,” had been brutally beaten by the police, and arrested as a potential terrorist.

As they navigate the criminal justice system with the help of a lawyer recommended by Vikram, Priya thinks back to when she and Ashok came to the United States twenty years before filled with optimism and energy. Priya was relieved to leave behind an abusive uncle and Ashok was delighted find caste irrelevant in American society, whereas in India, the “wrong surname or lineage could doom you to a certain path in life.” Priya recalls how she met her dear friend, Archana (“Archie”), at the elevators of the graduate student housing apartment, and how the Shah’s friendship with Archie and her husband Shrikesh (“Ricky”) had seen them through the “birth of their children, buying homes, worrying over elderly parents, marital tensions, and work troubles.” She remembers the difficulties that Ashok had finding employment, and the years of working assiduously and living frugally because those “American salaries were impressive when translated into rupees and applied against the Indian cost of living. But in America, in American dollars, everything cost more, and those salaries didn’t go far.”

Despite their outward appearance of success, Ashok continues to feel vulnerable, and his fears escalate as he and his family try to make sense of this calamity. They were “good immigrants” as their eldest daughter, Deepa, mockingly refers to them, and she is indignant that her parents did not feel a kinship with other minorities and, instead, helped to perpetuate systemic racism. Deepa missed the mosaic of cultures in her old middle-class neighborhood in Irvine, and refused to leave her former crowded and under-funded high school. Her closest friend is Paco, a young man from a poor Mexican family, whose mother was undocumented. When Ajay was arrested, Deepa and Paco were secretly attending a border protest in Tijuana, and when they were detained, Deepa was late to pick Ajay up from school. Deepa’s younger sister, Maya, is enjoying her tony new school and wealthy classmates, and is readily assimilating (although she has secrets, too).

As Ajay’s jailing sparks a media outcry, Gowda presents each family member’s viewpoint, as well as those of the police officers involved in Ajay’s arrest and detention. With a deft touch, Gowda examines themes such as immigration, assimilation, social class and privilege and the cost of success. “A Great Country” is a propulsive read with sharply crafted characters. Thank you Mariner Books and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this timely novel.

There was a lot to like in this book. It felt very timely and brought up a lot of important points in a slightly refreshing manner. However, looking closer at the parts, it felt like there was a lot of grandstanding throughout the story. Things were either shown as good or bad, no grey. Likewise, characters lacked the nuances I would have hoped for in the book. Everyone was either a minority or a racist. I think this might have been brought to the author's attention because farther in the book some growing and changing took place, but not enough and over too quickly of a page count. The climax of the story was rather abrupt, and despite being probably exactly what would have happened in real life in this situation, it felt rather anticlimactic after all the time leading up to it. And, the ending was all too neat and tidy for me. So, on the surface, this was a good read but I felt like the button pushing was intentional and there could have been more overall.

3.5 stars. I found it hard to get into at first - the beginning kind of dragged for me - but it got more and more interesting as I got further in. Ultimately, I enjoyed it and thought it brought up a lot of important issues... the model minority myth, family dynamics, immigration in America, and so on. I didn't like some of the plot regarding the legal issues the Shah family faced, though. It took up so much time, only to then be rushed through a resolution insanely quickly. Overall though, I did like this and would recommend it.

Priya and Ashok moved from India to the US in search of a better life. Now twenty years later they have three children, their own business, and have just moved to an upscale CA neighborhood with the best schools. Their twelve year old son Ajay is arrested when he is flying his drone near an airport. Because of his large size and communication difficulties, the police assume he is an adult. Now the family must cope with the aftermath of his arrest over the weeks prior to his arraignment. The daughters and their parents are forced to examine what they have given up to get ahead. The author tackles a lot of difficult issues in this book—police violence, racism, and sexual abuse among them. She also sheds light on the caste system still present in India. I found this very thought provoking. To me, most importantly, it illustrates the emotional and financial toll the legal system takes on the unjustly accused. I previously enjoyed The Secret Daughter and this is yet another great read by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. I thank NetGalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read this ARC.

One of the things I enjoy most about receiving advance review copies is being introduced to new authors. While I was initially drawn to A Great Country because of the comparisons to Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Shilpi Somaya Gowda has more than earned a place on my “authors to watch” list with this moving exploration of family, community, and culture.

From the opening line — “While twelve-year-old Ajay sat trembling in a jail cell, his parents were enjoying themselves at a dinner party” — I was hooked. A Great Country propelled me from one chapter to the next, as tension crescendoed to a fever-pitch. The story of the Shah family, the life they had built for themselves in Orange County, and the one event that caused everything to come crumbling down — well, that was a story I found myself engrossed in from cover to cover.

I will admit that I felt the last few chapters were somewhat disappointing. Conflicts were resolved, and the taut line of tension went slack. I won’t go into details (spoilers!), but the resolution of one minor character’s conflict in particular felt unrealistic. However, perhaps that’s due to one of the novel’s strengths becoming a double-edged sword: the characters and their struggles were so realistically and delicately plotted that, on the odd occasion things didn’t resolve to my liking, it felt jarring in comparison.

This is a quiet, character-driven novel. It isn’t flashy or fast-paced, but despite (nay, because of) that, I found myself drawn in and held close until the very last page. The relationship between Deepa and her mother, Priya, was especially poignant. Shilpi Somaya Gowda shows the difficulty of mother-daughter relationships so delicately, and while the conflict between Deepa, Priya, and middle child Maya was only a footnote in the larger conflict, it resonated with me immensely.

Ultimately, this slim, powerful novel will definitely leave a mark on me. If you enjoy contemporary fiction with a focus on families, be sure to check this one out.

(Review will be posted on March 25)

Ashok and Priya Shah emigrated to the USA where the caste system of India would not hinder the
job opportunities available. Having recently moved to a more upsacle community, they seem to be living the
American dream with their three children. All that is shattered when their twelve year old son is
arrested and suspected of being a terrorist. As they wait for their son's arraignment, the unwanted
media attention and neighborhood speculation add to the tension. Is it time to return to India where
they would not be viewed as outsiders?
A timely story reflecting the present day social and political climate.
#AGreatCountry #NetGalley

The Shah family has built a successful life for themselves in America; recently moving to a wealthy gated community. It all is at risk when their twelve year old son is arrested.

A great read that really speaks to current events from several perspectives. I loved how we see the situation from the young, progressive daughter’s eyes and also from the more reserved immigrant parents who value hard work and keeping clean. Their views of course conflict, and that’s part of the story. I felt so sad for the son and what he was going through, but considering real life events.. he was lucky to survive. The story talks about this as well.

“No matter what his papers said, he was a visitor here, at the mercy of whoever guarded his path with a badge and gun.”

A Great Country comes out 3/26.

A Great Country will make you sit down and think about how you currently feel about your own biases. Told from the perspective of a family in crisis, this rich story is marbled with many of the themes that keep us all up at night.

Definitely recommend!