Kim Thúy - A Long Journey

For this Big Thinking event at Congress 2012, author Kim Thúy shares her life's journey, fleeing Vietnam as a young refugee with her family and eventually making Canada her home. Her tale is captured in her autobiographical, award-winning book Ru, which has made waves in her home province of Quebec and has recently been released in English Canada. In speaking about her novel, Thúy explores the impact that war has on families, the role of memory in her story and the privilege of history. Kim Thúy left Vietnam as a boat person when she was ten years old. She has worked as a seamtress, an interpreter, a lawyer, a restaurant chef-owner and a guest chef on various radio and television stations. Ru is her first novel, published by Libre Expression in October 2009. The rights have been sold in 20 countries. It was a finalist on different prizes and has won the Governor General's Literary Award, the Grand Prix RTL/Lire 2010 and the Grand Prix du Salon du Livre de Montréal 2010.