How Much of These Hills Is Gold

DEBUT With visceral directness, Zhang opens her first novel with two children waking in a mining camp in the late 1800s American West and finding their father dead. As narrated by older child Lucy, various details emerge, if not explicitly; these children are of Asian ancestry, and the younger child, Sam, identifies as a boy but is biologically a girl. Discriminated against and destitute, the siblings flee with the corpse on a stolen horse; their flight finally comes to an end when they can bury their father. The book then shifts to their parents’ backstory, unfolding the family’s origins, their gold-fueled success, and their downfall when they lose their mother. The story then jumps forward five years, with Sam off adventuring as a man and Lucy acting as a companion to a wealthy white woman. Once they reunite, they set off to cross back to Asia, and on the way Lucy pays for Sam’s freedom with her own. But at what cost?