Kim Fu Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Kim Fu is a Canadian author of Chinese descent that is best known for ‘For Today I Am a Boy’, the award-winning debut novel that put her on the map.

+Biography

Kim Fu was born in 1987 in Vancouver. Her parents were immigrants from Hong Kong. Kim grew up in a predominantly Chinese community in Canada that immersed her in the culture of her parent’s native country.

However, while she can speak some Cantonese, the author can neither read nor write the language. Like most people her age, there has always been a great disconnect between Kim and her parents.

They tend to disagree on most issues. And that was always the case with the parents and the children in her community when she was a growing. A schism would always form between the generations when it came to issues like career, politics, and sexuality.

The older generation in Kim’s neighborhood was more concerned about the well-being of the family and community than they were about the individual. And it was unacceptable for any one person to take actions that brought dishonor to the family or the community.

Kim’s writing career has been informed by the quarrels she saw develop between parents who wanted so badly to assert their control and children who fought hard to carve out their own identity.

Kim struggled with the same problem. Her parents wanted her to study Chemical Engineering at University. And she did just that, at least in the beginning. But then she decided that she wanted to study psychology.

She added an English Literature course for good measure. Kim Fu wanted to write for a living and it wasn’t until she got to college that she realized how far she was willing to go to pursue the field.

The author eventually graduated with a Psychology Degree from Montreal’s McGill University. She also attended the University of British Columbia where she got her MFA in Creative Writing.

Her debut novel took shape during those college years. Kim Fu was a child when she began to write. By the time she was six, she had begun to experiment with poetry. Her parents were not particularly amused by her announcement that she would grow up to write novels for a living.

The family had produced numerous engineers by that point in time, and that included Kim’s father, who passed away in 2011. Her mother wasn’t an engineer but she worked at an engineering firm.

They expected Kim to toe the family line. But it wasn’t just a matter of staying within the expected parameters. Neither Kim’s parents nor her cousins thought it possible to make an actual living as a writer.
They eventually convinced her that, even if she were to pursue the path, it made sense to first acquire an engineering degree. That way she would have something practical to fall back on if the writing failed.

It was for that reason that Kim Fu actually signed up for a chemical engineering degree, though her strong will eventually won out and she decided to put everything she had behind her writing dreams.

Kim’s books tend to approach Asian culture from the perceptions of both an insider and an outsider. Despite growing up in an Asian community in Canada, Kim Fu never put much stock in her parent’s traditions.

It wasn’t until she finished college and begun to write that the author’s interest in Asian history, culture, and traditions was sparked. As such, Kim has the uncanny ability to produce novels that provide an authentic picture of Asian culture whilst also availing a point of view that allows outsiders to feel like they belong.

‘For Today I am a Boy’, the author’s debut novel, follows the exploits of a young boy struggling with his sexuality. Kim was inspired to write the book by the story of a sportswriter in his fifties who suddenly announced his intention to become a woman.

The decision injected a storm of turmoil into the sportswriter’s life, eventually leading to his suicide. Kim was fascinated by the story and it drove her to research the lives of Asians who struggle with their sexuality.

The book that Kim Fu eventually wrote put her on the map, earning her Awards and glowing reviews from critics. The success of the book became an obstacle for Kim who admitted that she struggled to write her second novel.

Kim wrote ‘For Today I am a Boy’ with the belief that no one would ever read it. The thought gave her the courage and confidence to unleash her creativity. With the success of her debut novel, Kim found that she now shouldered a lot of pressure to exceed the quality of her first novel.

She was eventually able to overcome that impediment to publish ‘The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore’.
When Kim isn’t writing novels, she’s working as an editor at a Canadian Political magazine.

+For Today I am a Boy

Peter Huang is Canadian. He is also the only son in a family of four children. Born to Chinese Immigrants, Peter always thought he was a girl. And he has always desired to embrace his feminine persona.

But his position as the exalted son of a Chinese family made that all but impossible, especially in the light of a father that has always pushed him to nurture a masculine attitude.

Peter spends his days struggling to make sense of his emotions. He explores his small world, meets many interesting figures, has affairs with older abusive women and does what he can to find a place where he belongs.

+The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore

Nita, Siobhan, Isabel, Kayla, and Dina are five young girls that have come to Camp Forevermore. The sleepaway camp promises a journey filled with campfire songs and swimming and friendship.

When the girls kayak to a nearby island, they have no idea that they will soon be stranded, with no adult of note to help them get back home. This book follows the girls as they strive to survive their ill-advised trip.

It also follows them beyond their first difficult night, exploring their adventures, successes, failures.