Born in Beijing but mostly an artifact of the United States, C Pam Zhang has lived in thirteen cities across four countries and is still looking for home. She’s been awarded support from Tin House, Bread Loaf, Aspen Words, and elsewhere, and currently lives in San Francisco.
Praise for How Much of These Hills Is Gold:
“An aching book, full of myths of Zhang’s making (including tigers
that roam the Western hills) as well as joys, as well as sorrows.
It’s violent and surprising and musical. Like Lucy and Sam, the
novel wanders down byways and takes detours and chances. By
journey’s end, you’re enriched and enlightened by the lives you
have witnessed.” —The New York Times
“[A] glittering debut . . . This novel is at once a thrilling
adventure, a tender coming-of-age story, an excavation of the
corrosive mythmaking surrounding the American west, and the arrival
of a major literary talent.” —Esquire
“While the book presents a counter-narrative to conventional tales
of America’s origins, it also interrogates the more intimate
dimensions of belonging and memory, asking, over and over, ‘What
makes a home a home?’” —The New Yorker
“Sure to be the boldest debut of the year.” —The Guardian
“A fully immersive epic drama packed with narrative riches and
exquisitely crafted prose . . . Zhang captures not only the
mesmeric beauty and storied history of America’s sacred landscape,
but also the harsh sacrifices countless people were forced to make
in hopes of laying claim to its bounty.” —San Francisco
Chronicle
“Outstanding . . . Zhang does more than just push against the
cowboy narrative: She shoves it clear out of the way. . . . at once
subversive and searching”—The Washington Post
“Just as Zhang tinkers with Western tropes, she also plays with
language, weaving Chinese phrases with cowboy drawl, merging myths
of tigers with fables about where the buffalo roam. Her prose at
its best can be heart-stoppingly lyrical.” —USA Today
“How Much of These Hills Is Gold is first and foremost a family
story, a gorgeous novel that gives its characters room to learn,
mourn, fight, and reinvent themselves. But it also reveals the
flaws and false revisions in the American mythos, the ways we have
never fully overcome the brutalities on which this country was
built, and how much was lost, destroyed, and stolen in the pursuit
of profit along the way.” —Chicago Review of Books
“Imaginative, vital . . . Zhang’s searing words pierce the heart of
America’s founding mythology, laying bare its lies, and offering up
a new, much-needed vision of this country and its people.”
—Refinery29
“As she depicts their journey, Zhang prompts the reader to think
about whose stories are told from this period of American
history—fictional or not—and adds her urgent voice to the genre.”
—Time
“A world wrought of breath and blood and imagination.” —Lit Hub
“Stunning . . . a long-overdue treatment of the American West.”
—Outside
“Lyrical and mythic, How Much of These Hills Is Gold reconceives
the immigrant narrative to tell an original story of racism and
American greed.” —The A.V. Club
“C Pam Zhang’s electrifying debut is a sweeping work of historical
fiction—the sort of masterpiece that immediately establishes an
author as a force to be reckoned with.” —Harper’s Bazaar
“This moving tale of family, gold, and freedom rings with a truth
that defies rosy preconceptions. The description of human and
environmental degradation is balanced by shining characters who
persevere greatly. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred
review)
“[An] extraordinary debut . . . Gorgeously written and fearlessly
imagined, Zhang’s awe-inspiring novel introduces two indelible
characters whose odyssey is as good as the gold they seek.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Aesthetically arresting and a vital contribution to America’s
conversation about itself.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Daringly original . . . Zhang’s laser-sharp reexamination of
America’s myth-laden past is likely to help bring clarity to many
issues that continue to challenge us all.” —BookPage (starred
review)
“Smart, beautiful, and intimate.” —The Millions
“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, The New York Times–bestselling
author of Fates and Furies
“A haunting, riveting and truly remarkable debut. Zhang writes with
the clear-eyed lucidity of ancient mythmakers whose eyes are
attuned to the vicissitudes of nature and humanity.” —Chigozie
Obioma, author of Booker Prize finalist An Orchestra of
Minorities
“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, author of What Belongs to You
“A truly gifted writer.” —Sebastian Barry, author of The
Secret Scripture
“A ravishingly written revisionist story of the making of the West,
C Pam Zhang’s debut is pure gold.” —Emma Donoghue, author
of Room
“How Much of These Hills is a miracle, as timely as it is
timeless, propulsive but also wonderfully meditative, a ferocious,
tender epic about a 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, author of The Incendiaries
“The writing here is intuitive, chewy, wonderful; the plot is
devastating and the talent is dazzling. Zhang is a blazing
writer.” —Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under
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