How Much Of These Hills Is Gold

C. Pam Zhang’s impressive debut re-imagines the American West in an epic novel about a family bound and divided by its memories and the search for both a home and a fortune.

Chinese immigration to the US during the California Gold Rush is the backdrop to this gripping adventure. In a reimagined American West, Lucy and Sam, two destitute children of Chinese descent, are newly orphaned siblings. With their father’s body on their backs, they roam an unforgiving landscape dotted with buffalo bones and tiger paw prints, searching for a place to give him a proper burial. The siblings must battle with their own memories, the illusion of the American Dream and each other.

"Zhang’s sweeping descriptions of the West put me in mind of Steinbeck; she captures well its aridness and wild beauty, as well as what it costs those who traverse the barren land ... Don’t get me wrong: Zhang’s voice and story are wholly her own. How Much of These Hills Is Gold is an arresting, beautiful novel that in no way directly mines another. But by invoking these tropes, she reimagines them for thousands of forgotten Americans of different races and gender orientations; her American West is no longer populated only by the all-white, predominantly male cast of characters who, we’ve been told, created it."  -  Martha Southgate, The New York Times Books Review

Born in Beijing but mostly an artefact of the United States, C. Pam Zhang has lived in 13 cities and is still looking for home. She’s been awarded fellowships and scholarships from organizations including Bread Loaf, Tin House, Aspen Words and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her work appears in Kenyon Review, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Tin House and elsewhere. She currently lives in San Francisco.