The Quality of Jinshan
About This Novel
Zhang Chenji, a Chinese-American writer born in the 1990s, is the first novel to be shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. It fights against the long-term erasure of Chinese people in American origin myths and creates a rare image of Chinese Americans in stories about the American West. Their father died in the night and their mother had passed away long ago. As immigrant orphans, 12-year-old Lucy and 11-year-old Sam fled with their father's body in search of a burial place in California, a land that rejected their existence. Along the way, the two children encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints and dilapidated landscapes, uncovering family secrets and sibling differences. This is a novel set against the background of the Chinese gold rush in the United States. Two children are on the run in an unforgiving land - not only to survive, but also to find a home. Broadly speaking, The Color of Gold explores issues of race and immigrant belonging in an ever-expanding nation; and page by page, it's about family memories that bind and divide, and the longing for home.
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