Welcome to Litsy!

Lyrical, beautiful, heartbreaking, and hopeful. Told with such genuine truth that it was easy to forget that it was a novel rather than a memoir.

Flipping through time, Ru tells the story of a young girl forced to flee Vietnam with her family after the war. Her life in Vietnam, journey through refugee camps in Malaysia, and life in Montreal is told through snippets of memory. Quick to read, but this one will stay with you for a long time.

Such a beautiful and thoughtful gift to give a child. The gift of dreaming.

"I believe that war and peace are actually friends, who mock us. They treat us like enemies when it suits them, with no concern for the definition or the role we give them."

#FoodandLit #Vietnam @Butterfinger @Texreader

I accidentally read this novella too fast. A delicately written story of a Vietnamese immigrant to Canada, it is a life story told out of order in short episodes – 113 chapters for a 209 page book! Sometimes the episodes flow together and the chapter breaks seem superfluous, other times there‘s no apparent connection between adjacent snippets. Unfortunately, the structure compelled me to race through the book, almost skimming and it never gelled.

An impressionistic, poetic but powerfull story about the migrant experience. A Vietnamese girl survives the war, boat journey, refugee camp and arrives in Québec with her family. Excellent book!

Not feeling well and stuck in bed the last day or so. But at least I can read.

Kim Thúy doesn't care about plot. Her books take the reader inside the central character's experience, all grounded and layered and so beautifully observed you want to rush up to someone and tell them this great/painful/elegant little vignette you just had from a new acquaintance who already feels like a friend. If you're okay with plotless fiction, you should absolutely read her. RU is as good a starting place as any.

A meditative, poetic novel that traces a Vietnamese woman‘s memories of her homeland, her family, and growing up in Canada.

Read May 13-16
Book 21/50

A slim collection of even shorter vignettes that was nevertheless impossible to rush through. A Vietnamese immigrants‘s story that collected memories & people with precise intention. The best way I can think to describe how the story unfolded (non-linear) is that it was like eating a long & satisfying meal with the main character while she told stories about this and that and here and there. And delivered them with beauty and unmistakable insight.

An impromptu addition to what I‘m currently reading. Beautiful vignettes weaving past, present, future and parenting and immigration and autism and life. Lyrical writing that is sparse on the page but precisely chosen for its depth and beauty. Amazed by what I‘ve read so far.

I finished this a few days ago and forgot to post it. It is beautifully written and moving, but also heart-wrenching and hard to read sometimes. I liked the way it was structured, kind of linked short stories almost? This was my book with a #refugeeMC for #booked2018 second quarter, and also my #letterT for #LitsyAtoZ! @BookishMarginalia @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen

A perfect book package from 🇨🇦 #penpal @TheKidUpstairs on a rainy day. I like magazines, so I know I'll enjoy The Walrus. And the two books look awesome. I like the postcard, and oh! The Maple Leaf on the coaster!! Coaster will sit on my end table right by my elbow. Thank you, Megan!! ❤️♥️

This is a great tiny book with some beautiful writing. It was the 2015 Canada Reads winner. It is written in short, poetic paragraphs that hit their point quickly. Part immigration story and part heartbreak story. This is a powerful book.

After reading Man by Thuy, I knew I wanted to read her debut. I enjoyed her exploration of the Vietnamese immigration experience and the nature of memory.

One of the books I picked up in Canada. Quick read, told in snippets. Autobiographical following the author from her life as a well off girl in South Vietnam, then as a refugee, her girlhood in Quebec and her adult life. Interesting perspective, but I would have like it to be meatier. 3.5⭐️

Started this last night. Enjoying it as a follow-up to The Best We Can Do and continuation of my education on Vietnamese history.

Canadian book mail! After discovering Indigo, it is now my go to for Canadian books. My first mail order from them! It takes two weeks, but who cares?

#amreading #books #reading #bibliophile #bookworm #booknerd #read #photography #ru #kimthuy

#junebookbugs day 19: #refugees
"Heaven and hell embraced in the belly of our boat. Heaven promised a turning point in our lives, a new future, a new history. Hell, though, displayed our fears: fear of pirates, fear of starvation, fear of poisoning by biscuits soaked in motor oil, fear of running out of water, fear of being unable to stand up, fear of having to urinate in the red pot that was passed from hand to hand, fear that the scabies on the

Vackert skrivet om vietnamesiska båtflyktingar till Kanada! En annorlunda släkthistoria skrivet ur perspektiv av en kvinna som vid flykten av tio år gammal. Inte alls vad jag väntade mig, men blev påmind om att varje flykting har en bakgrund, in historia. Väldigt vackert form.

Sommaren är räddad!

#aprilbookshowers Women in translation. This is still on my #tbr list 📚

Day 3 of #diverseathon calls for a picture of your favourite own voices book. Picking a favourite is hard, but I do love Ru, written by a Vietnamese refugee whose family came to Canada in the aftermath of the war. Ru fictionalizes her experience in a series of beautiful vignettes. Originally published in French, but also available in English Translated by Sheila Fischman.

This book was absolutely lovely and heartbreaking all at once. The language is spare and beautiful, and yet the author is able to give us a complete picture of what she's gone through and what her life has been like. Loved this one ❤️ #24in48

Book 4 #24in48 Started reading this without knowing anything about it. Not what I expected.

Was hoping to finish this tonight, but can't keep my eyes open. Will continue #24in48 tomorrow.

Christmas story by Kim Thúy in the newspaper this morning. I love the Sunday edition ?

Last but not least to catch up on #seasonsreadings2016, my entry for #notinEnglish. Sadly, as much as I wish to be able to speak another language I just have never mastered one (except for my once passable ASL). So these are two fantastic books that are translations from the French. I have mentioned Man here before, but Ru was Thuy's first novel and it won one of Canada's highest literary prizes. A brief story written almost as a poem. Gorgeous!

Part fiction, part memoirs of a young woman living through the end of the Vietnam war as a very young child, living in refugiee camps, arriving to this cold, white, alien country and putting in roots. Bits of memories, in one or two pages, stream of conciousness like writing. It stays with you in little things. For me it's brick walls, a bright red wool sweather, the family arrival at Mirabel on a pristine snow white day. ❤️👍

One of my favourites. Read this with my husband who came to Canada as a refugee when he was a child. Kim Thuy captures the experiences he lived to perfection. This book gave me insight into what it was like for him and his family; an experience which he sometimes finds hard to discuss. Her style of writing is unique, different but extremely effective.

The words, the cadence of this book is lyrical & so visceral. I don't know how to truly describe it. It evokes all these images, all these thoughts, & questions that I want to ask and that I want answers to. This books speaks to me personally too. I share a similar family history with the author, I'm the daughter of one of the thousands of Vietnamese refugees sponsored to come to Canada in the late 70s/early 80s. A must read, in my opinion.

This book has been sitting on my TBR pile for a few months. It's a story and a journey that I'm really looking forward to reading and one that hits close to home for me.

In times like these, I am thankful for books like this one that remind me of the power and beauty of the written word. Kim Thuy has written this haunting, breathtaking autobiographical novel of her family's escape to Quebec from Vietnam. It is a lyrical, intricate and unforgettable read

#diversereads

My desk is a small one and it usually just hosts my MacBook and that pile of books under Ru! But today I've replaced the computer w some of my favourite notebooks. The only one I've written in is the Little Prince 2016 planner! The elephant notebook is from a trip to Thailand and the brown leather one is a gift from my father-in-law and just too beautiful to write in. Defeats the purpose you say? That's ok by me! #augustphotochallenge #stationery

They would come back the next day to collect them one by one before the petals faded, after the captive tea leaves had absorbed the scent of the pistils during the night. They told me that every one of those tea leaves preserved the soul of the short-lived flowers.

Over the years, I've collected a fluttering eyelash from one, a stray lock of hair from another, lessons from some, silences from several, an afternoon here, an idea there--to form just one lover, because I've neglected to memorize the face of each one.

A good reminder of the mess left behind in war. The cover states that "ru" means "lullaby" in Vietnamese and a small stream or flow (of water, tears, blood, money,...). I'll add that it also means "light" in Sanskrit, which is also appropriate to the title. Worthy winner of 2015 Canada Reads.

Let's balance just finishing a comedienne's book about not wanting kids with this literate tome, shall we?

My children have given me the exclusive power to blow on a wound to make the pain disappear, to understand words unpronounced, to possess the universal truth, to be a fairy. A fairy smitten with the way they smell.