1:03 | Lunchtime "I hear stomachs rumbling, " says moderator Jimmy as the crowd stifles an embarrassed chuckle. He thanks Madeleine for coming up from Hong Kong to speak to us, for sharing a part of the Canadian culture, and the session wraps. Madeleine smiles, takes one final sip from her pink teacup, and thanks the crowd and bids farewell.

1:00 Sucking it Up Madeleine has been criticized for not being political enough. She was not shy in illustrating discrimination (during the 70s) through her words. For example, one characters, Matthew, is an engineer but can't find work. Clara is trained as a teacher but ends up being a seamstress. "Simply, they had no power," says Madeleine. "This is the world they were living; you go on and live the next best thing. Who is there to complain to? My parents' generation just took it. It's tragic."

12:55 | Penmanship Yesterday, Madeleine delivered another talk at Jiaotong University. At one point, she wrote her name, in Chinese, on the blackboard for all to see. With each completed character, the crowd gasps, surprised that she could write her name in her "native" language. When she completed, the room broke into applause. "This is when you turned Chinese to them," teases Jimmy. "It was very exciting," laughs the author, who picked up Cantonese from watching satellite TV from Hong Kong.

12:53 | Back-and-Forth When asked if she will continue to write cross-culturally, Madeleine affirms, yes, she'll still continue to volley between the East and West in her next work. "It just feels right," she says.

12:50 | It's a Good Thing Ringier's CEO Tim Murray asks Madeleine about writing such a tragic story on children of immigration being scarred from experience. Is this a common experience for immigrants? "You know how much your parents have given up for you," responds Madeleine. Disappointing her parents is unfathomable. "I don't know that it's more so than any kind of experience. It shapes you, that's all. It's the mold you come from." It's classified as traumatic, yet it is experiences such as this that makes you sensitive to situations and other people. "It's probably a good thing," she claims. "I think that is a good thing."

12:48 | Quoting Anne The writer's advice to budding authors sounds familiar. She quotes Anne Enright from last evening's talk: "You just have to sit and write." "Really I just sat in my chair and wrote," she recollects. "It takes on a life of its own. You just follow that. Nothing more to do than that." I nod in agreement.

12:45 | Balancing Act Madeleine needed to incorporate sensory details to write through the eyes of a child, since the characters would not know the details that she found through her extensive research. "You have to know everything, then you have to forget everything and write it, ' she explains. Otherwise, the content doesn’t feel fluid or organic. It’s a story about people, so it was important for her to strike a balance.

12:42 | Hat Rack Jimmy, having asked many second-generation "CBCs" about their identity, concluded tht no matter which generation, that "you are always Chinese. True? "My experience is not like that," responds Madeleine. "I come back here and I can’t speak the language and I don’t feel at home. What would be home? It seems to me you would have no place to hang your hat. She embraces the idea of being Canadian because it is so wide and encompasses so many things, "so I don't need to start hyphenating. “ Exactly.

12:38 | Family Tree Madeleine's first book of short stories, Simple Recipes, is "very Canadian" in that it encompasses cross-cultural differences. How has her parents influenced her writing? Immensely, beginning from her parents birthplaces, to her siblings being born in Asia--but not her. "We've always had a funny family dynamic, " she says. "I remember having to translate all the time." Her childhood as a second-generation Canadian-Chinese shrouded her of the difficulties she may have otherwise faced. "As a child you exist in both worlds," she explains. "So you can cross back and forth and it becomes part of your nature." On the other hand, as first-generation immigrants, her parents face instead, "a divide there’s a before and after that they can’t cross. They literally put it behind them."

12:35 | Multicultural Madeleine can't sway from talking about her background, which is infiltrated, of course, in her plotline. "In an Asian family, you learn not to ask," she says. "Delicately, you ask without pushing."

12:33 | In Their Shoes Obviously, Madeleine had to go through extensive research to create that childlike voice that carries through the story having not lived it herself. During her research in Malaysia, she found that not many people wanted to discuss the war. Yet she didn't attempt to pry open the lid that was so tightly shut, so she relied on secondary material. A photographer provided an enlightening comment: Having the need to always find that decisive moment to capture in a photo, he often goes into a child's perception of the world. It is much more direct, much more forceful, yet, while they are tuned into so much, a lot remains unclear. I vow to keep this thought in mind.

12:32 | War and... When asked about how war shapes the lives of children, Madeleine was a bit stumped. "War and memories of war shape people," comments Madeleine. "Lives are destroyed, but are also altered." Through this book, readers are able to escape, or enter, the alterations of lives of the children (the main characters) involved, Matthew and Clara. "It's a hard question," says Madeleine. "You don't sound very certain!" teases Jimmy. The crowd laughs.

12:29 | Irony Funny enough, people often remember her book as "Uncertainty". However, this works too. "[The] characters are looking to figure out something that's sure for them," says Madeleine, "something they need to know." There's a balance of searching for what they can know, and can know, though, about the people that you love. "The core of relationship that was [that] this kind of love was an act of faith. This is what they could be certain of."

12: 25 | Mama's Story Madeleine's mother is from Hong Kong; her father, Malaysia. The piece she is reading is set in Kowloon, where her mother is from, Madeleine regrets not asking her mother more questions before she passed away. Despite not really knowing, "you funnel everything back to fiction."

12: 21 | Reading Jimmy, from the Canadian Consulate, moderates this session. "Thank you so much for coming today," says Madeleine in her soft, sweet voice. "I know it's lunchtime. I also really like to eat lunch." The audience laughs. Madeleine begins the session with a reading from her book, which is a story that moves from place to place. Beginning in British North Borneo, to Jakarta, Vancouver, even Europe. She begins a reading of this book that explores the displacement of lives as an aftermath of war.

12: 17 | Intros Susan, from the Canadian Consulate, introduces the author. Madeleine studied dance at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and went on to complete a Masters degree in literature at the University of British Columbia. Madeleine, so far, has published two books. Her collection of short fiction, titled Simple Recipes has won numerous awards. Certainty, the book in discussion today, has been translated in 14 languages.

12:12 | O Canada The CW blog team has split: We've got Trista at Glamour Bar, live at Rob Gifford and I'm here in the Crystal Room, all set to chat about (and with) Madeleine Thien. This Canadian-born Malaysian author will discuss the themes of her novel, Certainty. Personally, I'm also cheering for Thien as she's from Vancouver, which just so happens to be my hometown too. Being perched on this windowsill at the Crystal Room (and many a times on a gorgeous day such as today) has become routine for us. As the last weekend of SILF continues, you can't help but think, "What? It's almost all over?" But not just yet. Here comes Madeleine.