{"product_id":"vi-isbn-9780735272804","title":"Vi","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe perfect complement to the exquisitely wrought novels \u003ci\u003eRu\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMãn\u003c\/i\u003e, Canada Reads winner Kim Thúy returns with \u003ci\u003eVi\u003c\/i\u003e, exploring the lives, loves and struggles of Vietnamese refugees as they reinvent themselves in new lands.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe daughter of an enterprising mother and a wealthy, spoiled father who  never had to grow up, Vi was the youngest of their four children and  the only girl. They gave her a name that meant \"precious, tiny one,\"  destined to be cosseted and protected, the family's little treasure.\u003cbr\u003e      But the Vietnam War destroys life as they've known it. Vi, along with  her mother and brothers, manages to escape--but her father stays behind,  leaving a painful void as the rest of the family must make a new life  for themselves in Canada.\u003cbr\u003e     While her family puts down roots, life  has different plans for Vi. Taken under the wing of Hà, a worldly  family friend, and her diplomat lover, Vi tests personal boundaries and  crosses international ones, letting the winds of life buffet her. From  Saigon to Montreal, from Suzhou to Boston to the fall of the Berlin  Wall, she is witness to the immensity of geography, the intricate fabric  of humanity, the complexity of love, the infinite possibilities before  her. Ever the quiet observer, somehow Vi must find a way to finally take  her place in the world.\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eFINALIST FOR THE 2019 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD IN TRANSLATION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Thúy is known for her short and elegant stories about being a refugee and immigrant, and the challenges of adapting to a new culture. In her novels, we experience Vietnam’s colours and tastes, the difficulties of exile but also riches, and a search for identity that we can all recognize ourselves in.” —The New Academy jury citation \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Kim Thúy’s novels are as compact as her tiny titles might suggest . . . but their poetic contents punch well above their weight in terms of story and raw emotional heft.” —Becky Toyne, \u003ci\u003eThe Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “At once highly stylized and emotionally raw, \u003ci\u003eVi \u003c\/i\u003eis as elegant, refined. Exquisite from start to finish.” —\u003ci\u003eToronto Star\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Thúy’s fiction is wholly original. Not only does she pursue her very personal theme of the Vietnamese refugee experience, she does it in gem-like poetic prose so beautiful you want to read whole paragraphs twice.” —Susan G. Cole, \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eNOW\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Kim Thuy’s \u003ci\u003eVi \u003c\/i\u003eis the most beautifully written book I’ve ever read. This is the perfect book to curl up with at the end of a busy day.” —Lesley Wilkins of Blue Heron Books (Uxbridge, ON), \u003ci\u003e49th Shelf\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Thúy . . . bravely exposes the sordid reality of racism in Vietnam. . . . Vi, a fragment of the name Vincent, is another example of Thúy’s playfulness with words. In particular, Thúy studies distinctions between languages as if this scrutiny might divulge the reasons for distinctions between peoples. . . . [The] story feels freighted with history.” —Donna Bailey Nurse,\u003ci\u003e Literary Review of Canada\u003c\/i\u003eBorn  in Saigon in 1968, KIM THÚY left Vietnam with the boat people at the  age of ten and settled with her family in Quebec. A graduate in  translation and law, she has worked as a seamstress, interpreter,  lawyer, restaurant owner, and commentator on radio and television. She  lives in Montreal and devotes herself to writing.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eKim Thúy has  received many awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award in  2010, and was one of the top 4 finalists of the Alternative Nobel Prize  in 2018. Her books have sold more than 850,000 copies around the world  and have been translated into 29 languages and distributed across 40  countries and territories. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSHEILA FISCHMAN is the award-winning translator of some 200 contemporary novels from Quebec. In 2008 she was awarded the Molson Prize in the Arts. She is a Member of the Order of Canada and a chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec. She lives in Montreal.CATINAT   WE LEFT VIETNAM with a close friend of my mother, Hà, and her parents.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHà is much younger than my mother. At the beginning of the 1970s in Saigon, she was the perfect modern woman in the American style, with her very short dresses that showed off the slanted, heart-shaped birthmark high up on her left thigh. I remember her irresistible platform shoes in the hallway of our house, which struck me as decadent, or at least gave me a new perspective on the world when I slipped them on. Her false eyelashes thick with mascara transformed her eyes into two spiky-haired rambutans. She was our Twiggy, with her apple-green and turquoise eyeshadow, two colours that clashed with her coppery skin. She was unlike most of the young girls, who avoided the sun in order to set themselves apart from the peasants in the rice fields, who had to roll their pants up to their knees and endure the violent bright light. Hà bared her skin at the swimming pool of the very exclusive Cercle Sportif, where she gave me swimming lessons. She preferred American freedom to the elegance of French culture, which gave her the courage to participate in the first Miss Vietnam competition, even though she was an English teacher.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy mother did not approve of her choices, which went contrary to her status as a well-educated young woman from a good family. But she supported her by buying her the long dress and bathing suit that Hà would wear on stage. She had her practise walking in a straight line along the tiled floor, balancing a dictionaryon her head, as she’d seen women do in films. My mother treated her as if she were her big sister,and shielded her from gossip. She allowed Hà to takeme with her to the chic boutiques on rue Catinat, andto drink a lime soda with her foreign friends. Hàmarched along this street with its grand hotels like aproud conqueror. The city belonged to her. I wonderedwhether my mother envied her this ease thatcame from the compliments raining down on herfrom her teachers and her American colleagues. Thelatter celebrated her beauty with gifts of chocolate bars,hair curlers, and Louis Armstrong records, whereasthe Vietnamese looked on her dark complexion as“savage.” More than once, my grandparents asked mymother to halt my swimming lessons with Hà. I suspectthat my mother disobeyed them and kept Hàclose to us because she hoped I’d learn to be beautiful. Unfortunately, that time with Hà in Vietnam was tooshort—or my apprenticeship, too slow.","brand":"Vintage Canada","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301134586085,"sku":"NP9780735272804","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780735272804.jpg?v=1767743430","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/vi-isbn-9780735272804","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}