Kim Thuy's Ru

Just doing some housework this morning and put on NPR's All Things Considered and I hear Kim Thuy's voice.

So glad to hear her being interviewed on NPR on the occasion of her book's release in the US.

Ru is an excellent book, of course, one of the best reads this year (though I read it way back last winter). It tells the tale of her family's leaving Vietnam and coming to Canada on a cold winter's morning. And Kim is such a fascinating woman: kind and bubbly and very entertaining.

What I appreciate about the book's success in our country is how it's Canadian literature at its finest, no one questions this, no one calls it Vietnamese though it's about a Vietnamese family. In Canada, that's less of a surprise, but the fact that it's been so widely embraced in Quebec is an excellent testament to how far Quebeckers have come in embracing the stories of those who come from other places. Yes, it's written in French so that helps but I am still happy to see this (and other) story from a "new" Quebecker.

I really hope her book is a booming success State side, matching its success in Quebec and Canada.