It’s funny the ways you’ll hear about a book. In the case of Giller Prize longlister Em, I first heard of it from a Swedish bookstagrammer because apparently it was translated from the original French into Swedish long before an English translation was published in Canada. The publishing world is weird. At any rate, she raved about it and I can see why.

Em is a very short book but it covers a lot of time and distance. Using short vignettes written in very spare prose, Thuy takes a child’s eye view of much of the twentieth century history of Vietnam, first colonized by the French and then subsequently ravaged by the 20-year US-led war. Thuy’s stories of various characters weave slowly back and forth with the strands eventually weaving together in more or less the present day. Interspersed between the characters’ stories, Thuy educates the reader’s head as well as her heart, including explanatory passages that describe events such as Operation Babylift in almost journalistic language.

I was glad to see Em on the Giller’s longlist as it sheds light on the long-reaching effects of conflicts such as this. While the Vietnam War officially ended in 1975, its impact has been life-changing for so many from that time forward. A short but powerful work juxtaposing individual lives against the geopolitical forces of war and colonization, Em explores how these actions ripple through generations irrevocably changing lives and futures.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Canadian English edition has been translated by Sheila Fischman.

I received an e-arc of em by Kim Thuy from Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review.

Kim Thuy weaves a story of interconnected characters through the history of Vietnam. It was at once a lush yet simplistic narrative and also a brief history through these personal narratives. From the rubber plantations to life in Saigon and the ways the end of the Vietnam War contributed to the global movement and diaspora of the Vietnamese people. I was pulled in by the characters and how they were all connected and interwoven into one another’s stories while also finding myself learning and understanding more about the Vietnam war, or the American War - depending on your point of view. This is by no means a history book - nor does Kim Thuy drag out the narrative. Chapters are short yet effective. It is horrifying yet hopeful at the same time. It is a reminder to us that real and personal histories play out as the big powers in the world play out their histories. While the two may be aligned and affect one another, it is ultimately the personal histories who feel the impact and are forever changed. Such a powerful and quick read. Highly recommend but read with caution.

Longlisted for the 2021 Giller Prize, this short book is read by the author and packs a powerful punch! Only 3hrs long and 150 pages, the author manages to cover a wide swath of Vietnamese history, focusing on the lives many people I knew little about and the far-reaching impact of the Vietnam war. Especially moving were the stories about Operation Babylift, where thousands of biracial children were sent to America to be adopted by largely white families. There is also a lot of death in this book, the author does not shy away from talking about the atrocities Vietnamese people endured during the war. But amidst the trauma and pain, there are also stories of courageous people doing brave things to save others. Highly recommended, especially for fans of Ann Shin's The last exiles or Ly Tran's House of sticks. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy!

4.5 stars.
With spare prose, and vivid, sometimes startling, sometimes horrifying, imagery, author Kim Thúy writes of the beginning hostilities in Vietnam, to the lives of two adult orphans many years after. Thúy begins the book's action with a French rubber plantation owner and the local woman intending to bring him down. The author follows their daughter Tâm, and later two other characters who are orphans and the children of local women and US soldiers, (one of the orphans is the child of Tâm).

Each short chapter felt almost like a tiny, self-contained story or episode in the war and aftermath; Thúy recounts each in tightly-written prose, with each chapter ending with a character or an idea, that is followed up in the succeeding chapter. The overall tone a little dream-like, even while describing the horrors of actions committed by soldiers, or governments.
For all the book's short length and beautiful writing, the content is not easy to read. And it shouldn’t be, considering the huge loss of life, lingering health problems in the Vietnamese population from US chemical attacks, and the Vietnamese populations scattered worldwide due to war.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I really loved Em! I tend to gravitate towards anything by Kim Thuy and this is amazing and well-worth the read. Kim Thuy is an excellent author and this is spectacular!

Em had one of the best writing that I’ve ever read. The English translation was done really well for this French book. Though at times it was hard to understand what was going on and sometimes left me confused, the story, which I think is based on a true story, left me in awe and utter shock as well.

Kim Thúy's “Em” is a work of unsettling yet poetic words capturing the essence of the greatest act of resistance: love.
The word em refers to the little brother or little sister in a family; or the younger of two friends; or the woman in a couple. I like to think that the word em is the homonym of the verb aimer, “to love,” in French, in the imperative: aime.
In the midst of war, an ordinary miracle: an abandoned baby tenderly cared for by a young boy living on the streets of Saigon.
A short novel exposing the history and trauma and war time Vietnam. Violent, dark, sad, eye-opening and … uplifting. Once again I am reminded of my privileged life and thankful for authors that write hard truths, educate and bring awareness.
What message can be found here? Perhaps that is where there is evil, there can be beauty and love.

A spare story of the horrors of the Vietnam War with an uplifting portion about orphaned children being adopted to US families and living a better life.

I was just saying the other day that I haven’t read any historical fiction recently and was thrilled to dive back into this genre by such a talented writer.

I did not know anything about Operation Babylift and only some about the Vietnam War and its’ atrocities. I also learned about rubber trees and how latex is extracted.

Operation Babylift was an initiative by President Ford in which he arranged to have orphaned children born to American soldiers flown to the US to be adopted by families across the country. As I was reading about this I couldn’t help but wonder how many of those children are making use of the DNA / ancestry searches to find their fathers. I see myself going down a rabbit hole of research on a few topics after reading this book.

So many of the children, now adults, started businesses in the US. Vietnamese immigrants were primarily the group that started up nail salons and account for the largest population in this sector.

This is my first book by this author but I will be picking up Kim Thúy’s books again as the writing was compelling and the information valuable.

The author is a Vietnamese born Canadian. Em has been translated from French by Sheila Fischman.

Thank you to @netgalley and @penguinrandomca for this ARC in exchange fir my honest review. Em publishes September 28, 2021.

<i>The word em refers to the little brother or little sister in a family; or the younger of two friends; or the woman in a couple.
I like to think the word em is the homonym of the verb aimer, "to love" in French in the imperative; aime.
A genesis of truth.</i>

Em, by Kim Thuy, consists of interlocking stories with many characters who move in and out throughout the story. The novel begins on a rubber plantation in Vietnam, moving to the village of Mai Lai and the massacre; the difficult life of the many children left behind by soldiers; followed by the end of the war and Operation Babylift including the first ill-fated attempt that ended in tragedy and the second successful flight; and finally ends with the lives of the orphans in America. Em is a very short book but it is a beautiful, often heart-rending, and powerful tale of truth, love, history, and the too often unacknowledged consequences of war.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

Em is a heartwrenching and heartwarming story about the Vietnam War and its aftermath, told through short vignettes and following a small cast of characters back and forth in time. It makes a person feel furious and hopeless about the fact of war.
This is a short book with short chapters and beautiful prose, which makes it an easy book to read. It deals with heavy topics, which makes it a hard book to read. The writing is poetic and evocative. I had a hard time getting into the writing style when I read Vi by the same author, but with this book I didn’t have that issue. It is translated from French, and I think reading it in the original language would be the best experience.
For those who are ignorant, as I am, about the American (Vietnam) War – if you can handle reading about the brutality – I highly recommend this book. I’m adding Kim Thuy to my list of favourite Canadian authors.

Original and immersive, I loved this narrative of the Vietnamese street urchin who nurtures the foundling. This short novel is strung together in a series of intense vignettes, and the reader is thrust into the lives of an interconnected cast of people to reveal how their lives have been decimated by the vagaries of war.

Em is as beautifully written and Kim Thuy's previous books. It is a haunting story of survival during and after the Vietnam War. I am thrilled to see it on the Giller longlist.

Thank you to Random House for the ARC.

💫 Em 💫
By: Kim Thuy & Sheila Fischman (translation)
Publisher: Random House (Sept 28. 2021)

Not a long book at only 160 or so pages but packed with love, devastation and policies that hurt so many during the Vietnam War.

Some will find it disjointed with the translation but if you dig through you’ll see the traces of generational trauma from war; I struggled at first just trying to get the flow of it.. again I think that it might just be the way it was translated… but I did find the allure of another voice speaking on the vibrations that a war can bring. And the simple kindness or love that can also pop up.

Quick read. I think I need to search for more books on the Vietnam war as I have read very little on it. Minus what our schools taught us.

Thank you @randomhouse for the gifted copy in return for an honest review
3.5

As usual, Kim Thuy's story telling moves me in unimaginable ways. Kim's writing style, compelling stories and enthralling characters are everything. I don't believe I connected with this book the way I have with her other ones but I would definitely re-read it and give it another chance. I love this author.

This is a different style of book with very short chapters focusing on different characters so it took me awhile to get into it. Once I did, I was hooked and wanted to know what happened to them all. It is a hard story in some ways since it is set at the end of the Vietnam war when the Americans were pulling out. Louis is a young boy who cares for an abandoned baby living on the streets of Saigon. He is the son of a long gone American soldier. The story deals with Louis, the baby and the different people that interacted with them, some for good, some not so much.

I found this book extremely difficult to read. It seemed disjointed and there was no flow. Perhaps because it was an ARC, which had many errors, it was hard to understand the story. Others have read it and found it moving but I did not. The story takes place in Vietnam during the war and centres on a little boy who takes care of an abandoned baby. She is named Em as this can mean little sister.

a disjointed telling of the Vietnam war told by louis and an abandoned baby named em or little sister. Beautifully written short story of love and survival was emotional to get through at times but rewarding as well.

Thank you netgalley for this arc

This book is not what I anticipated. It is comprised of snippets of relationships between the main characters during the time of the Vietnamese War. It centres largely around two orphans, Emma-Jade (em Hong) and Louis, who were both children of American soldiers and Vietnamese woman, To me there were too many historical facts and not enough story.

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.

Reading that, I thought this would be a story about a baby raised by a small boy during the ravages of the Vietnamese war. Instead, this is more like a series of vignettes leading to that one point and away from that one point. It is a story of the power of love and perhaps forgiveness even in the midst of war. It is an accounting for the horror the Vietnamese war caused for so many people. Those innocent people caught in a tragedy they had no control over.

Even though it wasn't at all what I expected, the book was quite engaging.

Before going into this book, I was already familiar with Thúy and her story because I’d studied her work in a Québecois literature class I was in a few semesters ago. That being said, this story was wholly about the Vietnam war and the love and family that the Vietnamese had to find and protect during the pain and chaos.

The book is written with beautiful prose and tells the interwoven stories of a handful of people who were affected by the war. It was a truly heartbreaking book, but the emphasis on love and found family was gorgeous and inspiring!

I highly recommend this translation, along with Thúy’s other works- whether you read the original French version or not. Her stories are just phenomenal and touch upon so many truths that Vietnamese people hold and deal with. She gives readers such a clear view into the lives of Vietnamese people, specifically the lives of Vietnamese refugees or “boat people” that reflect and draw upon her own experiences.