I am so excited to announce February’s featured author and book of the month – mostly because I can’t wait to get started on a new novel and sink my teeth into a book that’s been on my shelf for ages.

As Chinese New Year nears, I wanted to take the time to examine Chinese-Canadian culture. Nobody does that better than the venerable Wayson Choy.

While his adult and professional life is centered in Toronto, the stories Choy excites us with are those of Vancouver’s Chinatown and life there during World War II as first-generation Canadians coping with intergenerational issues and pressures.

He has crafted an incredible historical world that most Canadians have never experienced, marked by deep cultural pride and the immense challenges of people immigrating to a country that takes them in with hesitation and distrust.

While his first novel The Jade Peony is busy receiving much deserved media time thanks to it being short listed for Canada Reads 2010, we will be tackling the quietly profound All That Matters this month. It has spent its own time in the limelight as the winner of the 2004 Trillium Book Award Winner and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize that same year.

All That Matters continues the story of the Chen family – first introduced in The Jade Peony – from the eldest son’s point of view who came to Canada as a young child. Kiam-Kim grows up struggling to contend with the intergenerational pressures and cultural anxieties that come with his new life in Vancouver.

Set in the 1930s and 40s, this profoundly personal novel is one that I’ve been waiting a long time to spend some quiet time with, disappearing into its pages.

Before picking up the book, I highly recommend reading up on some of the fantastic interviews Choy has done over the years, including an excellent piece from Quill & Quire HERE. His modest yet provocative perspective on Chinese Canadian history and the intimate stories of immigrants is engaging and draws you in instantly.

Choy gives a lovely reading of a portion of All That Matters in this video:

Choy, himself a Canadian immigrant who grew up in Vancouver’s Chinatown with his adopted parents, has written novel after novel that I simply adore.

Join me this month in reading All That Matters. We’ll discuss it on the last Saturday of February.

Photos courtesy of Joe Wiebe.