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Narrator
Kim Thúy
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Translator
Sheila Fischman
Length
2 hours 58 minutes
Language
English
Em is a virtuosic novel of profound power and sensitivity and an enduring affirmation of the greatest act of resistance: love.
In the midst of war, an ordinary miracle: an abandoned baby tenderly cared for by a young boy living on the streets of Saigon. The boy is Louis, the child of a long-gone American soldier. Louis calls the baby em Hồng, em meaning "little sister," or "beloved." Even though her cradle is nothing more than a cardboard box, em Hồng's life holds every possibility.
Through the linked destinies of a family of characters, the novel takes its inspiration from historical events, from Operation Babylift, which evacuated thousands of biracial orphans from Saigon in April 1975, to the remarkable growth of the nail-salon industry, dominated by Vietnamese expatriates all over the world.
From the rubber plantations of Indochina to the massacre at My Lai, Kim Thúy sifts through the layers of pain and trauma in stories we thought we knew, revealing transcendent moments of grace and the invincibility of the human spirit.
Born in Saigon in 1968, Kim Thúy left Vietnam with the boat people when she was ten and settled in Quebec with her family. As well as being a writer, she has degrees in translation and law and has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer, and restaurant owner. Her debut novel, Ru, was published in 2009 and became a bestseller in Quebec and in France, garnering several prestigious literary awards. She has also written À toi (Yours), with Pascal Janovjak; Mãn; and Vi—in addition to a cookbook, Le secret des Vietnamiennes (Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen).
Born in Saigon in 1968, Kim Thúy left Vietnam with the boat people when she was ten and settled in Quebec with her family. As well as being a writer, she has degrees in translation and law and has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer, and restaurant owner. Her debut novel, Ru, was published in 2009 and became a bestseller in Quebec and in France, garnering several prestigious literary awards. She has also written À toi (Yours), with Pascal Janovjak; Mãn; and Vi—in addition to a cookbook, Le secret des Vietnamiennes (Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen).
Sheila Fischman is the award-winning translator of some 150 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 de l’Ordre national du Québec. She lives in Montreal.
Reviews
“Deeply moving…Magnificent.”
“A moving memorial to survivors and those who perished alike.”
“A brief, moving meditation on the nature of truth, memory, humanity, and violence: a powerful work of art.”
“Em may be [Kim Thúy’s] most beautiful book yet…Dazzling and all-consuming.”
“The author reduces the vastness of history to short chapters, miniatures of sensitivity, finding grace in the unbearable.”
“Kim Thuy’s English is strongly accented (it’s at least her third language, after all), and the rhythms of her speech are not those of a native speaker. But the listener adapts pretty quickly…There is a good deal of information about the war and its human cost worked in, but it is never dry or intrusive. Not everyone gets a happy ending, just as in life, but those who survive to the end get a glimpse of a brighter future.”
“Em is an original, innovative, poetic and haunting novel that deserves to be read, shared, studied and discussed.”
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