How Much of These Hills Is Gold
United States

How Much of These Hills Is Gold

by C Pam Zhang

Immigration Historical Fiction Literary Fiction 2020

Summary

In the final days of the Gold Rush, two Chinese American siblings, Lucy and Sam, find themselves orphaned in a hostile landscape where their very existence challenges the myth of the American West. Carrying their father’s body across a vast, unforgiving terrain, they search for a place to bury him and confront the secrets of their family’s past. Through memories of hunger, displacement, and their parents’ desperate pursuit of belonging, the siblings must decide what it means to inherit a country that refuses to claim them. Lyrical and haunting, C Pam Zhang’s debut reimagines the Western frontier through the eyes of those written out of its history, exploring race, family, survival, and the price of the American dream.

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Country
United States
North America
About the author
C Pam Zhang
C Pam Zhang

C Pam Zhang is a Chinese-born American novelist whose work explores identity, migration, belonging, and the ways power shapes people’s lives. Born in Beijing, she moved to the United States as a young child and grew up navigating different cultural environments. Her debut novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold (2020), reimagines the American West through the experiences of two Chinese American siblings during the Gold Rush. The book received widespread acclaim, won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature and the Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Zhang’s second novel, Land of Milk and Honey (2023), blends speculative fiction with questions of environmental collapse, desire, and economic inequality. A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, Zhang has also published writing in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and McSweeney’s Quarterly.

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Details
Published
2020
Author
C Pam Zhang