Good, if a bit uneven: there’s a middle section that feels deep, and rich—and then there’s other sections that feel like Zhang veers away before we can really settle in. Some characters come and go without really leaving a mark, and some key characters are deliberately left without a resolution. But: there’s stretches of prose that are magical, where I could feel the heat and the grit and the hope evaporating off the unforgiving land. I’m looking forward to what Zhang writes next.