Join us for a special evening with French-Vietnamese writer Line Papin, as she discusses her English-language debut novel, The Girl Before Her (trans. by Adriana Hunter and Ly Lan Dill, Ink & Blood / Kaya Press) with author Ly Tran.

Uprooted without explanation from the sunshine and chaos of Hà Nội at the age of ten, the narrator finds herself adrift in the unfamiliar, gray world of France and grappling with a deep sense of uncertainty about who she is and where she belongs. Lacking the words to express her growing sense of alienation, she stops talking, then eating. She’s hospitalized and almost dies from anorexia.

Part meditation, part family history, part message in a bottle to her younger selves, Line Papin’s lyrical work of autofiction explores what it takes to embrace one’s multiracial, transnational self by making peace with the generations of women who’ve come before.

The Girl Before Her is the first book to be published by Ink & Blood, a new joint imprint from Kaya Press and the Diasporic Vietnamese Artist Network (DVAN), which aims to bring Vietnamese literary voices from across the globe to English readers.

In English. Free with RSVP: click here for tickets.

This event is co-organized with Villa Albertine and Kaya Press.

Born in Hà Nội, LINE PAPIN moved to France at the age of ten. She is the author of five critically acclaimed novels: L’éveil (Stock, 2016, Winner of the Vocation Prize), Toni (Stock, 2018), Les os des filles (Stock, 2019, Winner of the Readers’ Prize of Le Livre de Poche), Le Cœur en laisse (Stock, 2021), and Une vie possible (Stock, 2022). The Girl Before Her (trans. by Adriana Hunter and Ly Lan Dill, Ink & Blood / Kaya Press, 2023) is her first book translated into English.

LY TRAN is the author of the memoir, House of Sticks (Scribner), winner of the NYC Book Awards Hornblower Award and named one of Vogue and NPR’s Best Books of the Year. She has received fellowships from MacDowell, Art Omi, Yaddo, and Millay Arts.

Photo credits: © Philippe Matsas / Stock