I wasn’t expecting to love the story as much as I did. Em is a little gem of a book packed will so much emotion. After only a few pages, my heart stopped for a minute as I took in the beauty of the words I was reading. Then I felt a rush of excitement, the kind you only get when you have discovered a gem of a book. The story took me out of my head and into the characters and events as a ray of emotions filled me.
How the characters are written is one of the beauty here. The story is not so much about the characters, but more about creating emotions around love as one event leads to another. Using a few carefully chosen words, Kim Thúy creates a powerful image of the people, emotions, and places while exploring the complexity of the refugee experience. She takes real-life stories of kindness and love and then adds a fictional outcome that leads to another one—touching lightly on dark historical events from war-torn Vietnam to adulthood in Canada.
There is so much to think about and consider in this powerful and emotional story that left a lasting impression on and one I still think about. I highly recommend it.
Published in September, 2021 by Random House Canada / Read April 2022
Penny For Our Thoughts 