Ling Zhang was born in 1957 in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, China, and moved to Canada in 1986. She is the multi-award-winning author of four novels and three collections of short stories. She lives in Toronto.

In the epic storytelling tradition of Amy Tan and Jiang Rong comes Gold Mountain Blues . This rich saga chronicles the lives of five generations of a Chinese family from Guandong Province who are transformed by the promise of a better life in Gold Mountain, the Chinese name for Canada’s majestic West Coast. In 1879, sixteen-year-old Fong Tak-Fat boards a ship to Canada determined to make a life for himself and support his family back home. He will blast rocks for the Pacific Railway, launder linens for his countrymen, and save every penny he makes to reunite his family—because his heart remains in China. From the 1860s to the present day, Gold Mountain Blues relates the struggles and sacrifices of the labourers who built the Canadian Pacific Railway and who laid the groundwork for the evolution of the modern Chinese-Canadian identity. A novel about family, hope, and sacrifice, Gold Mountain Blues is a marvellous saga from a remarkable new Canadian voice.