How Much of These Hills Is Gold: A Novel
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2020
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE 2020 CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE WINNER OF THE ROSENTHAL FAMILY FOUNDATION AWARD, FROM THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS A NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION "5 UNDER 35" HONOREE
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Belongs on a shelf all of its own." --NPR "Outstanding." --The Washington Post
"Revolutionary . . . A visionary addition to American literature." --Star Tribune An electric debut novel set against the twilight of the American gold rush, two siblings are on the run in an unforgiving landscape--trying not just to survive but to find a home. Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future. Both epic and intimate, blending Chinese symbolism and reimagined history with fiercely original language and storytelling, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a haunting adventure story, an unforgettable sibling story, and the announcement of a stunning new voice in literature. On a broad level, it explores race in an expanding country and the question of where immigrants are allowed to belong. But page by page, it's about the memories that bind and divide families, and the yearning for home.
ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2020
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE 2020 CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE WINNER OF THE ROSENTHAL FAMILY FOUNDATION AWARD, FROM THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS A NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION "5 UNDER 35" HONOREE
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Belongs on a shelf all of its own." --NPR "Outstanding." --The Washington Post
"Revolutionary . . . A visionary addition to American literature." --Star Tribune An electric debut novel set against the twilight of the American gold rush, two siblings are on the run in an unforgiving landscape--trying not just to survive but to find a home. Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future. Both epic and intimate, blending Chinese symbolism and reimagined history with fiercely original language and storytelling, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a haunting adventure story, an unforgettable sibling story, and the announcement of a stunning new voice in literature. On a broad level, it explores race in an expanding country and the question of where immigrants are allowed to belong. But page by page, it's about the memories that bind and divide families, and the yearning for home.
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Community Reviews
The premise of two orphaned Chinese American children during the Gold Rush era is very compelling. There aren't many stories written from the perspective of Asian Americans who helped built the American railroads and further popularized the gold rush hype. Lucy and Sam's journey to give their dad's corpse a proper burial across the western landscape is ambitious and admirable. However, the writing really took me on a loop to understand a lot of their intentions against their adversaries.
The Writer C. Pam Zhang’s novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is written in a unique style. The literary critic for National Public Radio (NPR), Annalisa Quinn compares Zhang’s How Much of These Hills Is Gold to William Faulker’s As I Lay Dying. I have not read William Faulker’s As I Lay Dying. According to Quinn, both novels begin "with a body in need of burying” (Quinn 2020). Zhang’s novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold starts with two American-born Chinese-American children having to bury their father somewhere in the hills of the arid American West (Quinn 2020). The book never states that the children are of Chinese descent, but the book implies heavily that the children are of Chinese descent. The children consider themselves Americans but none of the other characters of the novel except for their father consider themselves to be Americans. According to Quinn, similar to Faulker’s As I Lay Dying, in both novels, the dead person haunts the novel (Zhang 2020). In Zhang’s How Much of These Hills, the descended father even narrates section three. The novel seems to be about belonging. Pam Zhang’s book, How Much of These Hills is Gold is an impressive first novel. This novel was C. Pam Zhang’s first novel. I found Annalisa Quinn’s review of C. Pam Zhang’s book, How Much of These Hills Is Gold, useful in writing this ‘review.’
Works Cited:
Quinn, Annalisa. 2020, April 10. “In 'How Much Of These Hills Is Gold,' This Land Is Not Your Land.” National Public Radio. Review: 'How Much Of These Hills Is Gold,' By C Pam Zhang: NPR
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