A mother coaches her daughter in the challenging art of worm harvesting. A young woman tries to discern the invisible but immutable social hierarchies at a chicken processing plant. A failed boxer discovers what it truly means to be a champion when he starts painting nails at his sister's salon. The stories that make up How to Pronounce Knife focus on characters struggling to build lives in unfamiliar territory, or shuttling between idioms, cultures, and values. Thammavongsa is a master at homing in on moments like this - moments of exposure, dislocation, and messy feeling that push us right up against the limits of language. In the title story of Souvankham Thammavongsa's debut collection, a young girl brings a book home from school and asks her father to help her pronounce a tricky word, a simple exchange with unforgettable consequences. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa honors characters struggling to find their bearings far from home, even as they do the necessary "grunt work of the world." Named one of the best books of the month by The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Salon, The Millions, Bustle, and Vogue, this revelatory debut story collection from O. “As the daughter of refugees, I’m able to finally see myself in stories.” (Angela So, Electric Literature) Shortlisted for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize
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