After two years living in that family’s basement, the Thammavongsas moved to Toronto, where the author still lives (as do her parents).

When she was 2, she moved with her parents to Canada, sponsored by a family in Mississauga. Thammavongsa was born in a Lao refugee camp in Thailand. Stack your reading list with this guide to all the books nominated for major Canadian prizes Thammavongsa’s fiction cuts to the core of the immigrant reality like a knife – however you pronounce it.”Īnalysis: Thammavongsa’s fairy-tale ending caps a most unusual Giller Prize evening These stories are vessels of hope, of hurt, of rejection, of loss and of finding one’s footing in a new and strange land. “The emotional expanse chronicled in this collection is truly remarkable. Meals served on the floor is a Leo tradition, which is something the family is still doing in the new country.“How to Pronounce Knife is a stunning collection of stories that portray the immigrant experience in achingly beautiful prose,” read the jury citation. In the family´s apartment, the Lao’s traditions are representative: “…he’d hand over a newspaper to the child, who unfolded sheets on the floor, forming a square, and around that square they sat down to have dinner.” (ll. The apartment is small with two rooms and in one of them hanging a painting by her father (ll. The apartment represents Joy’s Asian identity. The difference between Leo’s Asian identity and the North American one is represented by the two settings - the school and the apartment.

When she returns home, she does not tell her parents what happened and that her father was wrong. Joy refuses to accept the correct pronunciation and is sent to the principal's office. Unlike what her father taught her, Joy learns that the letter “k” in “knife” is silent. The next day in school Joy is ridiculed for her mispronunciation by a girl in her class. One day Joy brings a book home from school and asks her father to help her pronounce a word she does not recognize - 'knife'. The short story “How to pronounce knife” by Souvankham Thammavongsa takes place in an unnamed North American country, where Joy’s family has moved from the Asian country of Laos.