Touching Beauty: The Poetics of Kim Thúy

Book Overview

Kim Th y is a literary phenomenon, rising in her first decade of writing to a level of international recognition that few Qu b cois writers ever attain. The Vietnamese-born author's novels have garnered literary prize recognition and have been translated from French into twenty-nine languages in nearly forty countries.

Touching Beauty is the first collection to focus solely on Th y and her economical yet poetic storytelling style that expresses both the traumatic and the beautiful. Her writings, which manage to be culturally specific all while speaking to the fundamentals of the human condition, are examined within the context of what is known as migrant literature in Canada and are situated within the history of Vietnamese literature in French that grew out of the colonial period. Chapters explore food, identity, gender, and the role of writing in Th y's life and work. Th y herself contributes an unpublished poem and an extended interview that focus on her ongoing struggle to find, and write, beauty amidst war, migration, poverty, and loss.

Touching Beauty maps the themes that have, to date, animated a literary career of global relevance and enduring value and encourages a deeper appreciation of Th y's writing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 022801767X
• ISBN13: 9780228017677
• Release Date: June 2023
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"