Gone Guru by Nadine Brown is an engaging and thought-provoking debut fiction novel that explores relationships, identity, and self-discovery.
The story follows Noni Barlow, a young aspiring Australian writer arriving in New York clinging to a half-finished manuscript in hopes it will change her life. She’s determined to make it as a writer, but her first major encounter with her literary idol Joyce Carol Oates ends in disaster. Her memoir idea is dismissed as outdated, and Noni is forced to confront the possibility that her big break may never come.
Renting a room in a Harlem apartment, she meets her new flatmate Vincent, a transcendental meditation guru with a massive following and a large trust fund. When she doesn’t see him for days, she assumes he’s simply travelling or avoiding her, but as time passes with unopened mail and a room untouched, he is nowhere to be found and has simply vanished.
Noni plunges headfirst into the mystery of the missing guru, partly driven by curiosity and partly by the hope that Vincent’s disappearance might provide the inspiration her writing desperately needs. She teams up with Merelis, the landlady’s daughter, who knows the city well, and Danny, an elderly octogenarian social worker. Together, this wonderfully mismatched trio navigates New York’s spiritual circles, wealthy neighbourhoods, and more unexpected corners of the city in search of answers.
What begins as curiosity gradually becomes an obsession. Noni’s search for Vincent forces her to confront some uncomfortable truths about herself. Is she genuinely trying to find Vincent, or is she searching for the story that will finally make her a successful writer? As the trio gets closer to uncovering the truth, the novel gradually shifts from a light-hearted mystery into something much more emotional.
The characters are one of the novel’s greatest strengths. They are flawed, complex, and wonderfully human, each carrying their own hopes, insecurities, and past experiences. Their relationships provide much of the story’s emotional depth, particularly in the way their experiences influence the choices they make
Noni is quirky, ambitious, and determined, but her self-doubt often undermines her confidence. Her search for Vincent becomes a metaphor for her own search for meaning, self-belief and validation as a writer and artist. I enjoyed watching her gradually realise that finding herself may be more important than finding the perfect story.
I particularly enjoyed the authenticity of the secondary characters, especially Merelis. She is sarcastic, sharp-witted and emotionally guarded, often responding to Noni’s dramatics with an unimpressed attitude that adds both humour and depth to their interactions. Danny was another character I really enjoyed. He is wise, kind, and empathetic, and his relationship with Noni develops into one of the more meaningful connections in the story.
Brown captures the contrasts of New York beautifully. It is vibrant, unpredictable, and impossible to ignore. I felt as though I was wandering the streets alongside the characters, moving from the energy of Harlem to the grit and charm of the Lower East Side and across to the more unexpected corners of Staten Island.
There were moments when I felt the pacing could have been a little tighter. Some sections took longer than necessary to reach their destination, and there were times when I wanted the story to move forward a little more quickly. However, this didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the novel.
Gone Guru is a warm, entertaining, and thoughtful read about change, transformation, relationships, and finding your way when life doesn’t quite turn out as expected.
I recommend it to readers who enjoy character-driven contemporary fiction that blends humour, mystery, and a touch of self-discovery.
A selection of our members are reading Gone Guru by Nadine Brown. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.
My love of books started at a very young age. My mum has always been a reader and encouraged me to read, buying me endless book from classic fairy tales advancing to the world of Enid Blyton, CS Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, Kathryn Kenny, Carolyn Keene, Francine Pascal. In my adult years the list of authors is endless and every room in my house is filled with books.
One of my favourite novels is Narnia which has always has a special place in my heart. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 1978 and when I was given this book to read it let me escape to another world where I felt like I was in the book with all the characters, it wasfun and exciting to escape from reality and eased the ups and downs of the disease at such a young age.
In books nothing is impossible and there is endless potential and hundreds of places to explore or being taken to places that are only made up from the authors’ great minds, the past and future to navigate, characters lives you step into taking you on an emotional rollercoaster ride or being scared out of your wits. I can experience things that I can’t in real life because they’re not possible or real. It challenges my perspective and mindset expanding my worldview.
I find joy, comfort and peace with books, many people may not get it, but I know bookworms like me truly understand. Reading makes my heart happy.
Gone Guru by Nadine Browne (Fremantle Press) is a quirky read but it is also quite an engrossing story of self discovery.
With just a manuscript, very little money and even less self confidence, would-be writer Noni arrives in New York to attend a creative writing course. She has never travelled outside outback rural Australia before, and New York city is literally a world away from what she has ever known.
She finds accommodation in Harlem via an ad on Craigs list but after meeting her new flatmate Vincent MacLean just once, he disappears. After some digging, Noni finds out that her flatmate is actually a meditation guru known as ‘Moksha’ and that there are quite a few people worried about where he is.
Somehow along with some of Vincent’s offbeat friends – elderly retired social worker Danny, and Merelis, the sassy daughter of her Puerto Rican landlady – Noni gets caught up in discovering what has happened to Vincent.
Along the way as she investigates clues about Vincent’s disappearance, Noni starts to write, turning Vincent’s disappearance into a new story line.
This is a colourful, eccentric book which I found quite entertaining.
Noni Barlow is from Western Australia and is broke so has moved to New York attending a graduate school for writers and has been working on a manuscript for 4 years.
Noni moves into an apartment block that has 6 floors and 5 apartments on each floor. The owner of the apartments is an older lady named Maya and her daughter that helps out is Merelis.
Noni has only been living there for 2 weeks when asked about her flat mate Vincent who hasn’t been seen for 3 weeks. It wasn’t unusual because he leaves for retreats to run meditation workshops as he is a guru. The reason for they think something has happened to him, is because he is behind with his rent which is very unusual for him.
Both Noni and Merelis take the opportunity of trying to find any sources that can help track Vincent.
Noni comes across a character called Danny Kronfield aged 86 who is a retired social worker and knows everyone and knows Vincent very well as he lost his parents when he was 15.
I really loved the character of Danny and following his story.
I was captivated by this mystery storyline as I really wanted to keep reading to see if Vincent was alive or maybe something has happened to him. I had a few suspicions but then you would be sent in a different direction.
As you read on, your adrenalin kicks in and those pages kept turning as I needed to know the answer.
I loved the way Nadine the author did some very funny descriptive lines in the book. Had me giggling.
Thank you Beauty & Lace and Freemantle Press for this mystery book.
Gone Guru by Nadine Browne is an excellent read.
Noni Barlow steps out of her comfort zone to follow her dream to become a writer. Bogged down with her current manuscript, Noni has enrolled in a creative writing course in New York, a long way from her home and family in Australia.
Noni has sublet a room from Vincent, a transcendental meditation guru with a massive following.
Vincent is so quiet and Noni is so busy.
When Merelis, the landlady’s daughter asks Noni for the overdue rent, Noni finally notices Vincent has disappeared.
So begins Noni’s journey to discover just what has happened to Vincent.
She is helped by Vincent’s friends, Merelis and Danny, a retired social worker.
Noni’s current real life experiences are far more interesting than her manuscript, maybe she will write a best seller based on Vincent’s disappearance.
The book is easy to read, entertaining, suspenseful, with great characters.
Thoroughly enjoyed it, five stars from me.
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I love a story about a native West Australian (Sandgroper) in America, in particular their deer in the headlights interpretation of New York, the City that never closes it’s eyes. The New York skyscraper skyline a stark contrast to the desolate whiteline fever of Noni’s youth.
The characters in the story are all a bit left of centre, Noni’s mum, forever on a spiritual journey, just not always searching in the right place, Merelis and Juander giving off Bonnie and Clyde energy, and something doesn’t quite gel with Alistair and Phoebe’s vibe, it’s a bit skewed. On the other hand, Danny comes across as the only sane one amongst this bunch of misfits.
I loved all the twists and turns the story took and all the Easter Eggs hidden along the way, and foolishly thinking I’d solved the mystery every couple of chapters!
Thank you so much Fremantle Press, Beauty and Lace, and Nadine Browne for immersing me in Noni’s reality, I’ve embraced every second of it. More importantly – thank you Danny Kronenfeld
Gone Guru by Nadine Browne is a mystery set in New York and featuring outback Australia. It is the story of Noni Barlow who travels to New York from Australia after being raised in a cult environment. She has dreams of writing a novel based on her experiences and is accepted into the NYU creative writing program. She answers an ad to share an apartment from a meditation guru named Vincent and after one brief meeting, when rent is due she finds out he is missing and he has a lot of money. She becomes obsessed with finding him and enlists the daughter of her landlady and a few other side characters. At the same time she is being critiqued on her writing and trying to come up with another idea. As the search goes on this becomes her idea and the story progresses a bit easier. I enjoyed the relationship formed between Noni and Danny who she provided care for.
I found it hard to empathise with the characters and the relationship between Noni and her Mum back in Australia was a bit slow. It was not the type of book I was expecting and having never been to New York I found that to be a bit of a disadvantage. It did get more interesting the more it went on, and I think readers wanting something a bit more quirky and different then this is for you.
Many thanks to Beauty and Lace and Fremantle Press for my copy of Gone Guru by Nadine Browne.
Noni Barlow heads to New York on a writers scholarship. A broke lady from a small Western Australian community alone in the big smoke.
She arranges accommodation with a meditation Guru, Vincent, who she meets on arrival and then he disappeared. She then meets other people in her building who believe his disappearance is unusual. Noni, who hardly knows him, decides to find out what happened to Vincent while using the situation as a story for her writing class. She enlists the help of an old social worker, Danny, who knew Vincent as well as Merelis, the daughter of the landlady. They discover many truths along the way of both Vincent and themselves.
The characters are really interesting and the book is easy to follow. Throughout I was invested in knowing where on earth this Guru had gone.