How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang is out now from Jonathan Ball Publishers.

‘C Pam Zhang’s debut is ferocious, dark and gleaming, a book erupting out of the interstices between myth and dream, between longing and belonging. How Much of These Hills Is Gold tells us that stories, like people, like the rough and stunning landscape of California itself, are constantly in the process of being made, broken, and finally remade into something tender and new.’ – Lauren Groff

‘This exhilarating novel unweaves the myths of the American West and offers in their place a gorgeous, broken, soulful, feral song of family and yearning, origin and earth. C Pam Zhang is a brilliant, fearless writer. This book is a wonder.’ – Garth Greenwell

‘How Much of These Hills is Gold is a miracle, as timely as it is timeless, propulsive but also wonderfully meditative, a ferocious, tender epic about vulnerable immigrant family trying to survive the American Gold Rush. I read it in one night and know I’ll revisit it soon: I envy you your first read of this book.’ – RO Kwon

About the book

Set during the Gold Rush, in a reimagined American West, Lucy and Sam, 12 and 11, 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.

How Much of These Hills is Gold is an epic debut novel about family and the search for both a home and a fortune.

About the author

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 organisations 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.

Categories Fiction International

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