Start the new year the right way! Join One eRead Canada, the first national, bilingual (English and French) digital eBook club featuring the exquisite, celebrated novel Vi by Kim Thúy. Readers from St John’s to Nanaimo to Whitehorse along with more than 600 public libraries are taking part in this simultaneous reading party.

From January 1 to 31, 2021, 85 per cent of all public libraries in Canada, including OPL, are offering free, unlimited access to Vi by Kim Thúy, in eBook and eAudiobook formats. The book is available on Cloud, Overdrive and Cantook Station in both languages – without holds or waitlists – with nothing but your library card.

This masterful novel about the lives and experiences of Vietnamese refugees in Canada was a finalist for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award in translation and longlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize. This is your chance to have a taste of Vi’s life; to read about her escape from Vietnam, to hear about her first love, and to witness her journey of self-discovery in a story that will take you across the globe from Vietnam to Canada to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Here's what Kim Thúy had to say about this initiative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WHxbBVvXLI

The author also participated in a live Q&A on Facebook on January 19 (in English) and January 20 (in French), to discuss some of the many themes that arise from this profoundly moving work. If you missed it, a recording of the events is available. You can still connect with readers across the country by joining the One eRead Canada Facebook Group or by using the hashtag #1eReadCanada. Every week in January, we post a question discussing the themes, characters, and overall impressions of the eBook.

In addition to being a bilingual, cross-country simultaneous reading experience, One eRead Canada underlines the Canadian Urban Libraries Council’s ongoing campaign, eContent for Libraries. Libraries want to work with the big publishers to establish fair pricing models that can benefit everyone and ensure equitable access to digital content such as eBooks and eAudiobooks. Collaborative library initiatives like One eRead Canada introduce readers and listeners to new books and authors, positively impacting sales of digital content – to the benefit of publishers, authors, and readers.