Very Vancouver: Uncovering the Soul of a West Coast City
$15.99-
Vancouver journalist Christopher Cheung has spent most of his career chasing the stories that no one else was covering, taking readers beneath the surface of the “city of glass” to expose the beating, multicultural heart of a place that has too easily been characterized by multimillion-dollar condos and yoga pants. In 15 deeply human and well-researched stories, Very Vancouver tours the city to reveal how families, businesses, and individuals are just trying to make a home in this beautiful, and challenging, place of plurality.
There are the families who were the first to mass-produce Canadian tofu and put beef balls in the earliest bowls of east-side phở. There is the diligent population of binners who scavenge alleyways for refundable cans and bottles. There is the roller-coaster story of how migration has shaped the kaleidoscopic menu — with bear claws, bánh mì, and tamales — of the legendary late-night Duffin’s Donuts. And, of course, there is the mysterious Baklava Man, who sold his treats on downtown streets after a career as an outspoken politician in Syria led to his exile.
Very Vancouver is a tribute to the city’s diasporas and examines the inequalities and fractured histories that mark every backyard vegetable garden and ubiquitous Vancouver Special, the boxy and derided design that housed newcomers. Vancouver is renowned for its natural beauty, but it’s also a place built on a foundation of migration, colonization, the working poor, and families who woke up every morning hoping for better.
Available August 4, 2026. PRE-ORDER NOW!
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Christopher Cheung is the author of Under the White Gaze: Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism. He has worked as a reporter at The Tyee, Metro, and the Vancouver Courier and has received two Webster Awards, BC’s top journalism prize. He was born and raised in Vancouver, where he still lives.
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Published: August 2026
ISBN: 9781770418387
Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 in.
Pages: 328
Reviews
“Very Vancouver is a heartwarming reminder of the city’s layered history and community spirit, beautifully reflecting its diverse voices and unique neighbourhood cultures, resilient even amidst the hustle of real estate and unaffordability. With its stories of immigrant and working-class survival and achievement, Very Vancouver highlights the often underappreciated aspects of our history.” — Ken Lum, OC DFA, multimedia artist
“Reading Very Vancouver is like eavesdropping at dinner tables, shop counters, and food courts, listening in on the conversations in Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Tagalog, and Punjabi, and having a guide to shepherd us through these worlds within worlds. This book provides insights into the overlooked, the unglamorous, and the beautiful ordinary.” — Greg Girard, author of City of Darkness and Phantom Shanghai
“A delight to read. As I compared Christopher Cheung’s memories of Vancouver with my own — and his generation’s experiences with my own — I was struck by his masterful storytelling and how he combines a journalist’s eye for detail with a philosopher’s perception of place and change.” — Michael Kluckner, author ofSurviving Vancouver
“A rare and refreshing portrait of Vancouver. Christopher Cheung takes us beyond the pretty skylines and into the extraordinary lives of the people who quietly give the city its soul.” — Uytae Lee, creator and host of About Here
“Very Vancouver, told with Christopher Cheung’s bottomless curiosity and love for his hometown, is full of people and places many of us just walk by without a thought, with stories that we have never heard. Luckily, now we have Christopher, and this book, to tell us what we’ve been missing.” — Sophie Lui, Global BC News anchor