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How to Pronounce Knife

Stories

Audiobook
2 of 3 copies available
2 of 3 copies available
WINNER OF THE 2020 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE 2021 TRILLIUM BOOK AWARD
FINALIST FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD, the PEN AMERICA OPEN BOOK AWARD, and the DANUTA GLEED AWARD
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Named one of Time's Must-Read Books of 2020, and featuring stories that have appeared in Harper's, Granta, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review, this revelatory book of fiction from O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa establishes her as an essential new voice in Canadian and world literature. Told with compassion and wry humour, these stories honour characters struggling to find their bearings far from home, even as they do the necessary "grunt work of the world."

A young man painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A father who packs furniture to move into homes he'll never afford. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. In her stunning Giller Prize-winning debut book of fiction, Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance, and above all their pursuit of a place to make their own. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men, and restless women caught between cultures, languages, and values. As one of Thammavongsa's characters says, "All we wanted was to live." And in these stories, they do—brightly, ferociously, unforgettably.
A daughter becomes an unwilling accomplice in her mother's growing infatuation with country singer Randy Travis. A former boxer finds a chance at redemption while working at his sister's nail salon. A school bus driver must grapple with how much he's willing to give up in order to belong. And in the title story, a young girl's unconditional love for her father transcends language.
Tender, uncompromising, and fiercely alive, How to Pronounce Knife establishes Souvankham Thammavongsa as one of the most important voices of her generation. 
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrators James Tang and Kulap Vilaysack capture diverse emotions in this moving collection of stories about the lives of new immigrants. In the title story, Tang brings out a Laotian girl's complex emotions after her father wrongly instructs her on how to pronounce the word "knife." Tang's spot-on syntax and versatile range of voices are also highlighted in "Chik-A-Chee" and "Randy Travis." Vilaysack's narration is equally dynamic and evocative. Her plainspoken portrayals of an 8-year-old girl who is getting candid life lessons from her great-grandmother in "Ewwrrrkkl" and a young woman who works as a worm picker in "Picking Worms" convey chagrin, pride, and unspoken tenderness. Sensitive and expressive, Tang and Vilaysack's performances showcase these unobtrusive yet powerful stories. M.F. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 11, 2019
      Poet Thammavongsa (Cluster) makes her fiction debut with this sharp and elegant collection that focuses on the hopes, desires, and struggles of Lao immigrants and refugees in an unnamed English-speaking
      city. In one of the best stories, “Slingshot,” a 70-year-old woman experiences a sexual reawakening with her 32-year-old neighbor, Richard: “It was the start of summer and I wanted something to happen to me.” In “Randy Travis,” a seven-year-old daughter is made to write hundreds of letters to country singer Randy Travis after her mother—who can’t write in English—becomes obsessed with him, and watches her father wear cowboy boots and flannel in an attempt to draw his wife’s attention. In “Mani Pedi,” a former boxer begins working at his sister’s nail salon (“It amazed him to see clients transformed. It was like what happened in the ring, but in reverse.”) and pines after a wealthy white client. In “A Far Distant Thing,” two 12-year-old girls have a short but meaningful friendship before they lose touch and their lives take different paths. Thammavongsa’s brief stories pack a punch, punctuated by direct prose that’s full of acute observations: in the final story, about a mother and her 14-year-old daughter picking worms at a hog farm, those laboring in the field “looked like some rich woman had lost a diamond ring and everyone had been ordered to find it.” This is a potent collection. Agent: Sarah Bowlin, Aevitas Creative Management.

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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