Canada Reads winner Kim Thy publishes 4th novel

Thetiny Kim Thy bounces into the CBC'sStudio Aasking, "Have you had a French kiss today? Do you plan to get a French kiss today?"

The GovernorGeneral Awardand Canada Reads winning author of Ru is a bundle of energyher tiny feet sporting red rain boots accented byred fingernails and lipstick.

She's a warm, engaging success story.

Thy is here to talkabout her new novel, Vi, a story about a young woman whose name means "precious, minuscule, microscopic" and how she transforms from a self-effacing girl into a confident lawyer whofallsin love, returns to her native Saigon to work and knows heart break.

With many parallels to Thy's own life, one can't help but marvel at the transformation the writer has undergone since arriving with her parents and brothers over 40 years ago from Vietnam as a boat person.

• Vietnamese refugee Kim Thy's second chance in Granby
• Special report:Au Revoir Vietnam, Bonjour Quebec
• CBC Books

"I want to talk about how we learn to live," she says.

"It's not because we're given a lifethat we know how to live.I think we need to learn to live. My mom keeps repeating that when you're born into a life, you have to learn how to stand, walk, drink, how to be a human, because we don't walk the same way if we're walking into a temple or going on a catwalk."

My Mom says all the time 'We can live our whole life and never become a human if we keep on taking shortcuts.'- Kim Thy

Thy's delicate writing style, with its sumptuous images of a comfortable life in pre-war Vietnam, has always made reading her work a poetic experience.

Sincea good part of Vi takes place in Canada, where the character is, like Thy herself did, studying translation, then law and getting to know Canadian friends and customs, I asked her whether or not she found writing about Canada somewhat bland.

"Oh no. I wanted to say how beautiful Canada is," she says.

"You know, you cannot appreciate the colour red without knowing the colour yellow. And that's why I put Canada next to Vietnam so you can appreciate how beautiful Canada is. That's the thing, silence and peace is so underestimated."

Vi came out this week in French, published by Libre Expression, and the author will tour Quebec this month. After that, she'llheadto France for the French launch of the novel.

Swedish and German translations are in the works.

No English translation is available yet, but her previous novels were published in many languages, including in English, for Random House.