Souvankham Thammavongsa launches Pick a Colour in conversation with francesca ekwuyasi
Schedule
Tue, 28 Oct, 2025 at 07:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
176 Rue Bernard Ouest, Montreal, QC, Canada, Quebec H2T 2K2 | Mount Royal, QC
Advertisement
Join us at Librairie D+Q for the launch of Pick a Colour, the new novel by Souvankham Thammavongsa, author of How to Pronounce Knife. The author will appear in conversation with francesca ekwuyasi, author of Butter Honey Pig Bread. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and the author will sign after the presentation. The event is free to attend and no RSVP is required.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
PICK A COLOUR: https://mtl.drawnandquarterly.com/colour
"One of the greatest novels I have ever read." RITA BULLWINKEL
"A knockout: every punch lands." ELEANOR CATTON
Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound depth. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complicated power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange.
As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.
Told over a single day, with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA is the author of four poetry books and the short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife, winner of the 2020 Giller Prize and 2021 Trillium Book Award. Her stories have won an O. Henry Prize and appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and Granta. Pick a Colour is her first novel.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Accessibility information:
- Our store uses StopGap.ca ramps in an effort to encourage accessibility. Both the step at the entrance, followed by a half step and a door have StopGap ramps. The door opens inward and is not automated. Once inside, there are no additional steps.
- There is one non-gendered bathroom.
- It is not a sober space, our events sometimes offer alcohol.
- Please email [email protected] if you have any accessibility needs we can accommodate.
Advertisement
Where is it happening?
176 Rue Bernard Ouest, Montreal, QC, Canada, Quebec H2T 2K2, 170 Rue Bernard O, Montréal, QC H2T 2K2, Canada, Mount RoyalEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
