Em - A Novel

Zusatztext “Just like tender, strong and graceful Vietnamese silk threads, Kim Thúy masterfully weaves us through Vietnam’s 20th-century history while binding us to the lives of its people so that their experiences expand our worldview. EM is an original, innovative, poetic and haunting novel that deserves to be read, shared, studied and discussed.” – Nguy?n Phan Qu? Mai , internationally best-selling author of The Mountains Sing . "A constellation of connected characters provides a snapshot of Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora in North America from French colonization to life after the war. ... A brief, moving meditation on the nature of truth, memory, humanity, and violence: a powerful work of art." – Kirkus Reviews “Expertly handled by her long-time translator, Sheila Fischman, the text juxtaposes horror and beauty to lasting effect. The prose is poised and elegant even when describing atrocity. … This is Thúy’s most ambitious and affecting book yet. Both sprawling and intimate, Em amplifies her storytelling and is a moving memorial to survivors and those who perished alike.” – Quill & Quire , starred review (Canada) Informationen zum Autor Kim Thúy Klappentext "Emma-Jade and Louis are born into the havoc of the Vietnam War. Orphaned, saved and cared for by adults coping with the chaos of Saigon in free-fall, they become children of the Vietnamese diaspora. Em is not a romance in any usual sense of the word, but it is a word whose homonym--aimer, to love--resonates on every page, a book powered by love in the larger sense. A portrait of Vietnamese identity emerges that is wholly remarkable, honed in wartime violence that borders on genocide, and then by the ingenuity, sheer grit and intelligence of Vietnamese-Americans, Vietnamese-Canadians and other Vietnamese former refugees who go on to build some of the most powerful small business empires in the world. Em is a poetic story steeped in history, about those most impacted by the violence and their later accomplishments. In many ways, Em is perhaps Kim Thâuy's most personal book, the one in which she trusts her readers enough to share with them not only the pervasive love she feels but also the rage and the horror at what she and so many other children of the Vietnam War had to live through. Written in Kim Thâuy's trademark style, near to prose poetry, Em reveals her fascination with connection. Through the linked destinies of characters connected by birth and destiny, the novel zigzags between the rubber plantations of Indochina; daily life in Saigon during the war as people find ways to survive and help each other; Operation Babylift, which evacuated thousands of biracial orphans from Saigon in April 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War; and today's global nail polish and nail salon industry, largely driven by former Vietnamese refugees--and everything in between. Here are human lives shaped both by unspeakable trauma and also the beautiful sacrifices of those who made sure at least some of these children survived"-- Zusammenfassung A novel of the emotional intricacies of trauma and exile, from the author of international bestselling Ru Shortlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award Finalist of the New Academy Prize in Literature Finalist Scotiabank Giller Prize Winner of the Prix du Grand Public—Salon du livre de Montréal Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction Winner of the Grand Prix RTL-Lire Emma-Jade and Louis are born into the havoc of the Vietnam War. Orphaned, saved and cared for by adults coping with the chaos of Saigon in free-fall, they become children of the Vietnamese diaspora. Em is not a romance in any usual sense of the word, but it is a word whose homonym— aimer , to love—resonates on every page, a book powered by love in the larger sense. A portrait of Vietnamese identit...

Product details

• Authors: Sheila Fischman, Kim Thuy
• Assisted by: Sheila Fischman (Translation)
• Publisher: Seven stories press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.10.2021
• EAN: 9781644211151
• ISBN: 978-1-64421-115-1
• No. of pages: 160
• Dimensions: 146 mm x 217 mm x 18 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature