When the 12 year old son of the Shah family is arrested, the lives of this hard working, loving family are tested. The parents immigrated from India 20 years ago, their 3 children were born in California and they own a successful business. Moving to an upscale neighbourhood, they realize how fragile their lives are. The arrest is based on discrimination, a brown boy in the wrong place.

This is a very good story, particularly if you are an immigrant, new to a country, and by new in this book that can mean you are still considered an immigrant if you've been in the country for 20 years. The Shah family has finally made it, they have recently moved to Pacific Hills a upper middle class neighborhood in California, a big step up from their place in Irvine. One night as the family is going out to dinner, they get a call from the police that their 12 year old, who has Asperger's/autistic (he hasn't been tested for either) has been arrested and they need to come to the station as soon as possible. As the parents make their way to the station, Deepa, who was not happy about moving is in Mexico at a protest when the police stop her and briefly confiscate her phone, a very unsettling incident for her. Deepa was supposed to pick up her sister Maya and her brother Ajay, who she doesn't know yet but has been arrested. Maya had managed to get home on her own, Deepa and Maya soon realize that Ajay is not at home, they go back to the pickup point and search for him before finding out that he's been arrested. Ajay is a brilliant young man who is into robotics, he had built a drone and intended to fly it near an airport when a security guard tackles him thinking he's trying to fly in the path of airplanes. This incident gets blown entirely out of proportion and when the media find out they camp outside the Shah household harassing them for a comment. They also have a brick thrown their window and people tell them to go home. There are a number of issues that are brought up in the book all very well handled. I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Marnierbooks for the ARC.

The Shah family believes it has made it in America, swimming pools, lovely homes, the right schools, etc. But when the son of the family is arrested for flying his drone near an airport, all falls apart. The price of the American dream is high for all in the family, will they survive? Well written and poignant.

A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gouda is a fast paced, and thought provoking book. It is well written and a fast read. It makes the reader see things from a different perspective.

The story follows an Indian family who immigrants to America, and are living quite comfortably in Southern California until a police encounter goes horribly wrong. When their 12 year old son is arrested, it puts the whole family in a tailspin. It elicited a wide range of emotions and dealt with racism, discrimination, privilege, class, culture and the caste system. The way the different family members deal with this crisis and their feelings seem very realistic.

This book would make a perfect book club choice. So many different opinions could come out. The story moved along fast and was fascinating, entertaining and satisfying. Good read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an advanced copy of this book.

The Shah family has achieved long sought after success 20 years after arriving in the United States. But shortly after moving into their beautiful new home in Pacific Hills, their world implodes when their 12-year-old son is arrested when flying a drone at the airport. As the family deal with this issue, they come to realize that their success has come with a price. This is such an interesting book as it deals with themes of police attitudes towards minorities, the Indian caste system and children who are on the autism spectrum.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for this read. This was a good and easy read. Family sagas always give you so much and this one was based on profiling, immigrants and just the hard life face by some black families. Good read. I will check out what the author puts out for sure.

This book asks about the possibility and price of the American dream.

Ashok and Priya Shah immigrated to the U.S. from India almost two decades earlier. By working hard, they’ve achieved success, having recently moved to an affluent gated community in southern California. Deepa, the eldest daughter, insists on staying at her old school with its multi-ethnic students, including her best friend Paco whose mother is undocumented. However, Maya, the middle child, loves her new school and strives to be accepted by her wealthy classmates.

One day, twelve-year-old Ajay, the youngest child, flies his homemade drone near an airport and is beaten and arrested as a terrorism suspect. Because he is on the autism spectrum, though not diagnosed, his reactions complicate the situation. As the Shahs struggle with the upheaval in their lives, the community at large becomes aware of Ajay’s arrest and the response is not always positive.

Multiple viewpoints are given. The perspectives of Ashok, Priya, Deepa, and Maya are included regularly so we get to know them really well and understand their actions. Ajay’s thoughts are also given occasionally, as are those of one of the arresting police officers.

The Shahs see themselves as model immigrants. Well-educated, they’ve worked hard and become upstanding citizens: “they were a law-abiding, tax-paying family who had followed every single rule since arriving in the country with a proper visa and legal invitation to come.” Despite their success and efforts not to draw attention to themselves, they encounter prejudice. Ashok thinks about India “where the complex strictures of caste, privilege, and socioeconomic class were [difficult] to escape,” but he realizes he has exchanged these constraints “for the new challenges of being a visible minority and an obvious foreigner.” He concludes, “America had its own version of a caste system – some visible minorities were on the bottom, hampered by discrimination and historical disadvantages, a constant headwind against their efforts.”

So the novel questions whether it is possible for immigrants to achieve the American dream: “Is America truly a country where people can come from around the world to seek their version of the American dream, or a place where ancient biases and discrimination continue to reign?” The Shahs belong to a “model minority” considered “smart and knowledgeable” and they have “managed to ascend to a higher rung,” but events show that they are not totally accepted. It’s as if the message is “thus far and no further.”

Of course, there are also questions about the meaning of success. Ashok in particular thinks in terms of economic success, but he and Priya come to realize that material trappings do not guarantee happiness. The family receives more support from outsiders and the middle-class community in which they lived previously.

One aspect of the book that bothered me is that it borders on being didactic. Some of the conversations so obviously touch on topics like immigration and racism: “’When a community starts becoming successful, that is when the backlash starts.’” Then there are statements like, “A country whose global advantage was its diversity born of immigration was turning its back on what had made it great.” And a character’s thoughts become a history lesson: “[Deepa’s] parents didn’t bother trying to see what life was like for Black people in this country, to understand the legacy of slavery and how it had reverberated through centuries of life in America: Jim Crow, voter suppression, redlined districts, underfunded public schools. Entire communities had been neglected when it came to infrastructure, from safe drinking water to access to fresh food and health care.”

Touching on themes of immigration, community, social class, stereotyping, racial profiling, white privilege, upward mobility, and generational conflict, this is a timely book with an important message.

A heartfelt, incredibly moving, ripped from the headlines story about a South Asian immigrant family chasing the American dream in California only to have their suburban life turned upside down when their tall, 12 year old neurodiverse son is detained and abused by the police.

Relatable and all too real, this story is about family, generational divides, race relations in America and police brutality. It was also great on audio with an important author's note included at the end. Highly recommended, especially for fans of books like A good neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review. This is by far my new favorite book by the author and it is sure to be a book club contender and a great source of discussion.

I saw this one on the most anticipated releases on Indigo Canada’s website and I went to see if I could request the e-arc right away. It sounded right up my alley, especially when I saw it compared to Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng which I also loved.

I was kindly provided an arc and I’m so glad I read it because I truly loved this book. The author was able to intertwine so many important topics into a family saga in such a succinct way in this novel. Less than 300 pages!

This one is thought provoking, angering, and hopeful in so many ways. We are entered into the life of an Indian family who lives in California, they have made so many sacrifices and done everything right to be the “model minority” so they don’t see it coming when their 12 year old son is roped into a legal case for innocently flying his drone near an airport.

It discusses the Indian caste system which I only learned about myself a couple years ago, the continuation of discrimination not just from white people but from other minorities and how that can further disrupt progress and create divide. It also touches on neurodivergence in what I think was a very well done way.

I absolutely loved this one. It comes out next week so I recommend you grab a copy asap!!

I am a huge fan of the author's work; having read A Secret Daughter when it was published years ago with my book club. A story that has remained with me today and currently sits on my forever shelf. She writes with such emotion and connections about families.

In this novel, there's a spotlight on immigration, American's and the mosaic ways that we are made up but it also touches on children in a new generation that are full of rage and anger without ever thinking about their parents and what they went through to find a place in their new home. Honestly, the book has so many themes that I found it hard to decide what one I was most connecting with. I think the pieces of "not having time to worry about whatever is 'hot' in the news rang so true to other memoirs I've read and perhaps most relatable for readers. Not all readers I would say but some. And for the other readers, it is a chance to step into someone else's shoes.

*side note, read Viola Davis' memoir you'' see pieces of this same story in the way that she explains that a person who is hustling to just pay bills does not even have the time to focus on anything but paying bills or getting through the day.

honestly I could write pages on this but I wont. I think that it's better for a reader to pick it up and read it as a book club. Let the voices be heard in a discussion and then see if it changes the lens to what you read in the news.

ps. my main criticism of the novel is that it 'touches" on so many themes to unravel but with it being only 330 pages, it doesn't dig in deep enough. The book ends in an abrupt way that it makes the reader 'feel better' but not sure it would happen in quite the same way in life.

This was a compulsive family saga that touched on the differences / perceptions of life for first vs second generation immigrants, racial injustice / profiling, class / caste and the realities of the “American Dream”. The majority of the novels I have read that touch on racial profiling center around Black characters, so I really appreciated reading about it from the perspective of a Brown family.

I love how this toggled between past and present, really giving the reader an idea of the sacrifices the Shahs made to give their children opportunities they never had. All the characters in the family struggled with their identity and culture in their own way, and I found myself rooting for each of them individually and as a collective.

As a true fan of this author I was very excited for the opportunity to get to read an advanced copy of her newest novel A Great Country. This is the fourth novel by Shilpi Somaya Gowda that I have read and I found it hard to put down.

Following a family after one of its members, the youngest in the family, is accused of serious criminal activity, A Great Country highlights the many facets to police and societal views on the incident. We see how one innocent mistake can quickly grow to monumental consequences and how this family fairs in the wake.

The steady pacing and suspense as to what will happen to this young person had me reading beyond what my eyes wanted to tolerate. While this novel is primarily plot driven I still enjoyed the characters and motivations. I found myself reflecting on my own biases and how what happened in the novel would play out where I live.

Thank you to @netgalley and @penguinrandomca for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. A Great Country publishes March 26, 2024. I’ll be here cheering it on and waiting for whatever Gowda writes next!

Oh and pay attention to the illustrations at the beginning of each part and how they change. A story in itself!

Fantastic read! I flew through this one. I appreciated the way the author presented the important themes - community, immigration, racial profiling, justice. In the first few pages I got slightly lost with all of the names, but eventually, each character was important to the narrative and served a purpose. I found myself caring about all of them and their development. 4.5.