The GoldDiggers

We all know our final destination, but we have no idea what will cross our path as we journey there.

It is 2008, and Zimbabwe is in the depths of its economic collapse. A group of passengers crowds into a Toyota Quantum, preparing to embark on a treacherous journey to the City of Gold. Among them are Gugulethu, who hopes to reconcile with her mother; Dumisani, an ambitious young man convinced he will strike it rich; Chamunorwa and Chenai, twins fleeing a troubled past; and Portia and Nkosi, a mother and son desperate to reunite with the husband and father they see only once a year.

Each has paid a steep price for the dangerous passage to what they believe will be a better life—an escape from the harsh realities of Bulawayo. In their dreams, the streets of Johannesburg are paved with gold, but they soon discover that getting close to that gold requires digging deep and becoming stained by the struggle along the way.

Told with unflinching honesty and vivid prose, this moving novel weaves together the stories of individual immigrants into a narrative that is at once heartbreaking and heartwarming.