Ru: English Canada

French-Canadian Dept: English Canada remains somewhat ignorant of acclaimed contemporary French-Canadian literature, possibly the result of lingering anti-Quebec sentiment or lacklustre marketing reach, or both. And though translations have actually been decreasing over time, stories like Ru offer a compelling bridge for readers interested in hearing voices from across the linguistic and cultural divide, according to The Chronicle Herald. Here s Ru s protagonist describing the chaotic background action during her birth: I came into the world during the Tet Offensive, when the long chains of firecrackers draped in front of houses exploded polyphonically along with the sound of machine-guns. Ru translates as lullaby in Vietnamese and small stream in French, dually applicable titles for this book from a Montreal writer that won a 2010 Governor General s Award for French-language fiction and several hefty international prizes. Kim Thuy was born in Saigon and immigrated to Quebec in 1979 at age 10. The book is carefully billed as fiction but reads as straight autobiography and scarcely like a novel at all. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.