How Much of These Hills is Gold is an incredible debut from an author I hope to be reading for a long time to come.
C Pam Zhang has claimed a nugget of history for herself and for everyone who has ever wondered what it means to be home.This story is at once recognizable and totally original.
As orphaned siblings Lucy and Sam set out on a quest to bury their dead father and claim a future for themselves, the reader embarks on a journey of their own, and will not be disappointed.
This book left me questioning so many things that I have taken for granted. How many people have lost their story-lines to the hand of a powerful majority? What do we really owe to our families? How much can we ever really know, of even those most close to us? What does it mean to belong and what is that belonging worth?
In the simplest since, this is the story of two siblings finding their way in a world that refuses to accept them. But it is so much more. This is a shifting of the mirror, a reminder that history (both broad and intimate) is not always what it appears to be at first.
This book is a gold rush all its own, filled with flecks of gorgeous language, complex characters and a plot that dances both forward and backward toward an end you hope will never come.
