`The boldest debut of the year . . . It is refreshing to discover a new author of such grand scale, singular focus and blistering vision` - Observer 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. `The 19th-century American West is the setting for C Pam Zhang`s impressive debut. Rickety wagons, gambling dens, dusty towns and dodgy outlaws stalk its pages . . . How Much of These Hills is Gold breaks the mould [as a] revisionist immigrant fable of the making of the West . . . a daring and haunting epic` - Sunday Times `A truly gifted writer` - Sebastian Barry, two-time Costa Book of the Year winner `Pure gold` - Emma Donoghue, Booker-shortlisted author of Room `Dazzling` - Daisy Johnson, Booker-shortlisted author of Everything Under A GWYNETH PALTROW BOOK CLUB PICK