Em is a virtuosic novel of profound power and sensitivity and an enduring affirmation of the greatest act of resistance: love.
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.
Through the linked destinies of a family of characters, the novel takes its inspiration from historical events, from Operation Babylift, which evacuated thousands of biracial orphans from Saigon in April 1975, to the remarkable growth of the nail-salon industry, dominated by Vietnamese expatriates all over the world.
From the rubber plantations of Indochina to the massacre at My Lai, Kim Thúy sifts through the layers of pain and trauma in stories we thought we knew, revealing transcendent moments of grace and the invincibility of the human spirit.
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“Kim Thuy’s English is strongly accented (it’s at least her third language, after all), and the rhythms of her speech are not those of a native speaker. But the listener adapts pretty quickly…There is a good deal of information about the war and its human cost worked in, but it is never dry or intrusive. Not everyone gets a happy ending, just as in life, but those who survive to the end get a glimpse of a brighter future.”
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