"It put words to what I saw during the pandemic in a way that changed my life." "Somehow barebones and surreal, Souvankham Thammavongsa's How to Pronounce Knife is a collection whose stories will stay with you long after you've closed the book's cover." The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, Bustle, and Salon** Magazine** **Named one of the most anticipated books of the month by the New York Times, O. *Winner of the 2020 Giller Prize* *A 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist in Fiction* *A finalist for the 2020 PEN Open Book Award* *Longlisted for the 2020 Believer Book Award* **Named one of the most anticipated books of 2020 by Electric Literature, The Millions, and Ms. "As the daughter of refugees, I'm able to finally see myself in stories." -Angela So, Electric Literature Unsentimental yet tender, taut and visceral, How to Pronounce Knife announces Souvankham Thammavongsa as one of the most striking voices of her generation. As one of Thammavongsa's characters says, "All we wanted was to live." And in these stories, they do-brightly, ferociously, unforgettably. 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. Henry Award winner 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 belong. In her stunning debut story collection, O. A mother teaching her daughter the art of worm harvesting. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. Uncannily and intimately observed, written with prose of exceptional precision, the stories in How to Pronounce Knife speak of modern location and dislocation, revealing lives lived in the embrace of isolation and severed history-but not without joy, humour, resilience, and constant wonder at the workings of the world"-īook Synopsis A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN Open Book Award, and winner of the 2020 Giller Prize, this revelatory story collection honors characters struggling to find their bearings far from home, even as they do the necessary "grunt work of the world." A failed boxer painting nails at the local salon. An ex-boxer turned nail salon worker falls for a pair of immaculate hands a mother and daughter harvest earthworms in the middle of the night a country music-obsessed housewife abandons her family for fantasy and a young girl's love for her father transcends language. About the Book "In her stunning debut, Souvankham Thammavongsa captures the day-to-day lives of immigrants and refugees in a nameless city, illuminating hopes, disappointments, love affairs, and above all, the pursuit of a place to belong.
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