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Ru: Kanata Classics Edition
Part of the inaugural Kanata Classics list, with a new introduction by Sharon Bala, Ru is a lullaby for Vietnam and a love letter to a new homeland.
Ru. In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow--of tears, blood, money. Kim Thúy's Ru is literature at its most the flow of a life on the tides of unrest and on to more peaceful waters. In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec. There, the young girl feels the embrace of a new community, and revels in the chance to be part of the American Dream. As an adult, the waters become rough now a mother of two sons, she must learn to shape her love around the younger boy's autism.
Moving seamlessly from past to present, from history to memory and back again, Ru is a book that celebrates life in all its its moments of beauty and sensuality, brutality and sorrow, comfort and comedy.
Ru. In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow--of tears, blood, money. Kim Thúy's Ru is literature at its most the flow of a life on the tides of unrest and on to more peaceful waters. In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec. There, the young girl feels the embrace of a new community, and revels in the chance to be part of the American Dream. As an adult, the waters become rough now a mother of two sons, she must learn to shape her love around the younger boy's autism.
Moving seamlessly from past to present, from history to memory and back again, Ru is a book that celebrates life in all its its moments of beauty and sensuality, brutality and sorrow, comfort and comedy.
140 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 15, 2025
About the author
Kim Thúy
38 books938 followersKim Thúy arrived in Canada in 1979, at the age of ten. She has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer and restaurant owner. She currently lives in Montreal where she devotes herself to writing.
Her debut novel Ru won the Governor General's Award for French language fiction at the 2010 Governor General's Awards. An English edition, translated by Sheila Fischman, was published in 2012 and was a shortlisted nominee for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Thúy spent her early childhood in Vietnam before fleeing with her parents as boat people and settling in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil. She has degrees in law, linguistics and translation from the Université de Montréal.
Her debut novel Ru won the Governor General's Award for French language fiction at the 2010 Governor General's Awards. An English edition, translated by Sheila Fischman, was published in 2012 and was a shortlisted nominee for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Thúy spent her early childhood in Vietnam before fleeing with her parents as boat people and settling in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil. She has degrees in law, linguistics and translation from the Université de Montréal.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 17, 2026
Some books surprise you, amuse you or punch you in the feelings. Ru doesn’t really do any of that. It asks for appreciation rather than reaction.
And honestly? “I have no idea what to say about this, except that I admired the hell out of it” is a perfectly valid response.
And honestly? “I have no idea what to say about this, except that I admired the hell out of it” is a perfectly valid response.
February 28, 2026
Me gustó la fragmentación de la historia en cortos capítulos y la creación de imágenes a través de la memoria. Interesante para conocer más de la historia de Vietnam posterior a la guerra.
August 9, 2026
I've recently reviewed Tim O'Brien's excellent short story collection The Things They Carried which is one of the best books written by an American about the American war in Vietnam. This week let me draw your attention to two books written by women who were born in Vietnam, endured part of the American war there, and then ended up in Montreal. Caroline Vu is ten years older than Kim Thuy, but both have written stunning books of life in war torn Vietnam and the immigrant experience in North America. Both have several to their credit, but Thuy's debut novel Ru is my favourite of her oeuvre, while the only one of Vu's that I've read so far is her latest, Catinat Boulevard.
Vu left the country when she was 11: her mother, a doctor, was able to get her and her sisters to the US, and to start a new life there. Thuy was about the same age when her family left, but by then Saigon had fallen. She and her family were among the thousands of "boat people" who fled, often in small boats and always to a future that was dreadfully uncertain. Both women are well-educated: Vu is a family doctor, and Thuy is trained as a lawyer. Each also is fluent in English, French and Vietnamese: Thuy writes for publication in French and Vu, in English. Each has two children, and seemingly masses of energy, as witness the number of projects they have successfully undertaken.
It's a truism that there are many ways to tell a story, and Vu's and Thuy's stories certainly bear that out. Despite their similarities, the manner in which each tells hers is strikingly different. Vu's is sprawling--470 pages--and covers the lives of two women who are school friends in the last days of the old Vietnam, plus the life of the son which one of them has with an African-American GI. It begins in the 1960s and ends in 2020. Along the way it deals with pedophilia, begging children, racism, Agent Orange, Communist re-education. and much more.
Thuy's book, on the other hand, is spare and poetic. The trials that the family (modelled on her own, it seems) go through are harrowing, but the message at the end is upbeat. The family may have to work in the fields in Quebec for a spell, but they have unquestionably found a better place for themselves.
Which is better? Hard to say, depends in part on how you like your fiction--long narratives, or short distillations of experience. Perhaps the best thing for you is to read both and decide...
Vu left the country when she was 11: her mother, a doctor, was able to get her and her sisters to the US, and to start a new life there. Thuy was about the same age when her family left, but by then Saigon had fallen. She and her family were among the thousands of "boat people" who fled, often in small boats and always to a future that was dreadfully uncertain. Both women are well-educated: Vu is a family doctor, and Thuy is trained as a lawyer. Each also is fluent in English, French and Vietnamese: Thuy writes for publication in French and Vu, in English. Each has two children, and seemingly masses of energy, as witness the number of projects they have successfully undertaken.
It's a truism that there are many ways to tell a story, and Vu's and Thuy's stories certainly bear that out. Despite their similarities, the manner in which each tells hers is strikingly different. Vu's is sprawling--470 pages--and covers the lives of two women who are school friends in the last days of the old Vietnam, plus the life of the son which one of them has with an African-American GI. It begins in the 1960s and ends in 2020. Along the way it deals with pedophilia, begging children, racism, Agent Orange, Communist re-education. and much more.
Thuy's book, on the other hand, is spare and poetic. The trials that the family (modelled on her own, it seems) go through are harrowing, but the message at the end is upbeat. The family may have to work in the fields in Quebec for a spell, but they have unquestionably found a better place for themselves.
Which is better? Hard to say, depends in part on how you like your fiction--long narratives, or short distillations of experience. Perhaps the best thing for you is to read both and decide...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews