How to Pronounce Knife: Stories

How to Pronounce Knife: Stories - Paperback

$17.99
$17.99
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How to Pronounce Knife: Stories
  • How to Pronounce Knife: Stories
How to Pronounce Knife: Stories - Paperback

How to Pronounce Knife: Stories - Paperback

by Souvankham Thammavongsa
$17.99
$17.99

Book Overview

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. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. A mother teaching her daughter the art of worm harvesting. In her stunning debut story collection, O. 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 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.

​Unsentimental yet tender, taut and visceral, How to Pronounce Knife announces Souvankham Thammavongsa as one of the most striking voices of her generation.

A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN Open Book Award, and winner of the 2020 Giller Prize

"As the daughter of refugees, I'm able to finally see myself in stories." --Angela So, Electric Literature​
ISBN9780316422123
Author Souvankham Thammavongsa
PublisherBack Bay Books
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedApril 2021
LanguageENG- English
Pages192
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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More by Souvankham Thammavongsa

How to Pronounce Knife: Stories

How to Pronounce Knife: Stories - Paperback

How to Pronounce Knife: Stories - Paperback

By Souvankham Thammavongsa

About Souvankham Thammavongsa

Souvankham Thammavongsa was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, and was raised and educated in Toronto, where she now lives. How to Pronounce Knife, winner of the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize and 2021 Trillium Book Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta, and NOON.

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