The Beauty of Humanity Movement

by Camilla Gibb

Set in contemporary Vietnam, this is the story of a country undergoing momentous change, a story that transforms our notion of how family is defined-not always by bloodlines but by the heart. Tu’ is a young tour guide working in Hanoi for a company called New Dawn but while he leads tourists through hi city, he starts to wonder what it is they are seeing of Vietnam- and what they miss entirely. Maggie, who is Vietnamese by birth but has lived most her life in the U.S., has returned to the country in search of clues to her dissident father’s disappearance during the war. Holding the story together is Old Man Hung, who has lived through decades of political upheaval and through it all has found a way to feed hope to the community of pond side dwellers among who he lives.

(From Publisher).

Camilla Gibb was born in London, England and grew up in Toronto. She has a Ph.D. in social anthropology from Oxford University. Sweetness in the Belly was a national bestseller, a Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist, and winner of the Trillium Award. Her novels have been translated into fourteen languages and published to rave reviews around the world. She lives in Toronto.

Set in contemporary Vietnam, Gibb offers a thoughtful novel on the meaning of family and art, as a reflection of national character. Much attention is focused on Old Man Hung's survival as an unlicensed Pho soup seller. His extraordinary adaptability and the continuity with the past offered through Hung's culinary skills, suggest he is offering not just Pho, but hope.