"A debunker of stereotypes and a seeker of the big picture, [Gibb] isn't satisfied with merely creating convincing characters and a bold plot. She educates and enlightens the reader. . . . Gibb portrays Hung as a figure of immense pathos and dignity. . . . A bittersweet story of old lost love is brought up to date, and that the beauty of humanity--sans irony--triumphs." --"The Gazette "(Montreal)"Gibb ties the strands of narrative together in the same way that Hung makes his pho - with care, with gentleness and with reality. She employs all the senses to create a vivid aesthetic tapestry of the concrete, and then infuses it with the abstractions of family and ambition and respect for elders. . . . Gibb has created her own 'Beauty of Humanity, ' andat the heart is the talented and loving Old Man Hung." --"The Globe and Mail"

Camilla Gibb was born in London and grew up in Canada. She has a PhD in social anthropology from Oxford University and has been writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta. Her previous novels, Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life and Sweetness in the Belly, have been published to acclaim in eighteen countries. The jury of the Orange Prize named her as one of twenty-one women writers to watch in the twenty-first century. She lives in Toronto.