FORUM, KQED-FM (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Forum Book Club returns with “How Much of These Hills Is Gold,” the debut novel from C. Pam Zhang. Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, the book has been praised for its “arresting,” “lyrical” and “ravishingly written” style. It follows the quest of two Chinese American orphans, Sam and Lucy, to bury their father, a failed gold prospector. In this tender coming-of-age story, Zhang asks “what makes a home a home?” and in placing a Chinese family at its center, a group that history has not just forgotten, but in some instances, erased, the novel reshapes the American western.
Guests include Zhang and May-Lee Chai, associate professor, Department of Creative Writing, San Francisco State University. Chai is also the author of the short story collection “Useful Phrase for Immigrants,” which won the 2019 American Book Award.