2021 PEN/Hemingway Award (nominee)
2020 Booker Prize (longlist)
2020 John Leonard Prize for Best First Book (nominee)
2020 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020
A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020
America. In the twilight of the Gold Rush, two siblings cross a landscape with a gun in their hands and the body of their father on their backs . . .
Ba dies in the night, Ma is already gone. Lucy and Sam, twelve and eleven, are suddenly alone and on the run. With their father's body on their backs, they roam an unforgiving landscape dotted with giant buffalo bones and tiger paw prints, searching for a place to give him a proper burial.
How Much of These Hills is Gold is a sweeping adventure tale, an unforgettable sibling story and a remarkable novel about a family bound and divided by its memories.
'A daring and haunting epic' SUNDAY TIMES
'A unique reimagining of the American West adventure' THE TIMES
'A fierce, feminist Western' DAILY MAIL
'Remarkable' HARPER'S BAZAAR
'Reminiscent of both Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison' IRISH TIMES
'C Pam Zhang's arresting, beautiful first novel is filled with myths of her own making as well as sorrows and joys' NEW YORK TIMES
A GWYNETH PALTROW BOOK CLUB PICK
Genre: Literary Fiction
A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020
America. In the twilight of the Gold Rush, two siblings cross a landscape with a gun in their hands and the body of their father on their backs . . .
Ba dies in the night, Ma is already gone. Lucy and Sam, twelve and eleven, are suddenly alone and on the run. With their father's body on their backs, they roam an unforgiving landscape dotted with giant buffalo bones and tiger paw prints, searching for a place to give him a proper burial.
How Much of These Hills is Gold is a sweeping adventure tale, an unforgettable sibling story and a remarkable novel about a family bound and divided by its memories.
'A daring and haunting epic' SUNDAY TIMES
'A unique reimagining of the American West adventure' THE TIMES
'A fierce, feminist Western' DAILY MAIL
'Remarkable' HARPER'S BAZAAR
'Reminiscent of both Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison' IRISH TIMES
'C Pam Zhang's arresting, beautiful first novel is filled with myths of her own making as well as sorrows and joys' NEW YORK TIMES
A GWYNETH PALTROW BOOK CLUB PICK
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"A truly gifted writer." - Sebastian Barry
"A ravishingly written revisionist story of the making of the West, C Pam Zhang's debut is pure gold." - Emma Donoghue
"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
"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
"Intuitive, chewy, wonderful; the plot is devastating and the talent is dazzling. Zhang is a blazing writer." - Daisy Johnson
"How Much of These Hills 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." - R O Kwon
"Zhang writes with the clear-eyed lucidity of ancient myth-makers whose eyes are attuned to the vicissitudes of nature and humanity. Her characters inhabit this universe with a distinct and memorable presence that will haunt readers in this riveting and truly remarkable debut." - Chigozie Obioma
"A ravishingly written revisionist story of the making of the West, C Pam Zhang's debut is pure gold." - Emma Donoghue
"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
"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
"Intuitive, chewy, wonderful; the plot is devastating and the talent is dazzling. Zhang is a blazing writer." - Daisy Johnson
"How Much of These Hills 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." - R O Kwon
"Zhang writes with the clear-eyed lucidity of ancient myth-makers whose eyes are attuned to the vicissitudes of nature and humanity. Her characters inhabit this universe with a distinct and memorable presence that will haunt readers in this riveting and truly remarkable debut." - Chigozie Obioma
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