WINNER OF THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE

'Spellbinding' i
'Breathtaking' Elle
'Powerhouses of feeling and depth' Mary Gaitskill
'Sharp and vital' Daisy Johnson
'Excellent' Margaret Atwood on Twitter

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.

In this 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.

'There is not a moment off in these affecting stories' Sheila Heti

Souvankham Thammavongsa was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand in 1978 and was raised and educated in Toronto. She is an award-winning author of four poetry books. Her stories have won an O. Henry Prize, been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and have appeared in Granta, Harper's and the Paris Review among other publications. How to Pronounce Knife is her debut short story collection.

souvankham-thammavongsa.com