“The great achievement of The Sympathizer is that it gives the Vietnamese a voice and demands that we pay attention. I haven’t read anything since Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four that illustrates so palpably how a patient tyrant, unmoored from all humane constraint, can reduce a man’s mind to liquid.”- Washington Post Laced with insight on the ways nonwhite people are rendered invisible in the propaganda that passes for our pop culture. has wrapped a cerebral thriller around a desperate expat story that confronts the existential dilemmas of our age. a much-needed Vietnamese perspective on the war.”-Bill Gates, Gates Notes Despite how dark it is, The Sympathizer is still a fast-paced, entertaining read. Most war stories are clear about which side you should root for- The Sympathizer doesn’t let the reader off the hook so easily. Nor does he pass judgment about where his narrator’s loyalties should lie. “Nguyen doesn’t shy away from how traumatic the Vietnam War was for everyone involved. The voice of the double-agent narrator, caustic yet disarmingly honest, etches itself on the memory.”- Wall Street Journal (WSJ’s Best Books of 2015) is intelligent, relentlessly paced and savagely funny. “This is more than a fresh perspective on a familiar subject. In its final chapters, The Sympathizer becomes an absurdist tour de force that might have been written by a Kafka or Genet.”-Philip Caputo, New York Times Book Review (cover review) Nguyen’s skill in portraying this sort of ambivalent personality compares favorably with masters like Conrad, Greene, and le Carré. The nameless protagonist-narrator, a memorable character despite his anonymity, is an Americanized Vietnamese with a divided heart and mind.

His book fills a void in the literature, giving voice to the previously voiceless. brings a distinctive perspective to the war and its aftermath. “A layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a ‘man of two minds’-and two countries, Vietnam and the United States.”-Pulitzer Prize Citation Named a Best Book of the Year on more than twenty lists, including the New York Times Book Review, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post Shortlisted for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award White Read-Aloud Award (Book of the Year, Adult Fiction) Bingham Prize for Debut Fictionįinalist for the 2016 Medici Book Club Prizeįinalist for the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Mystery/Thriller)įinalist for the 2016 ABA Indies Choice/E.B. Winner of the 2017 Association for Asian American Studies Award for Best Book in Creative Writing (Prose)įinalist for the 2016 PEN/Robert W. Winner of the 2016 California Book Award for First Fiction Winner of the 2015-2016 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (Adult Fiction) Winner of the 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

Winner of the 2016 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping spy novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a “man of two minds,” a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who comes to America after the Fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. With the pace and suspense of a thriller and prose that has been compared to Graham Greene and Vladimir Nabokov, The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal.

The winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as seven other awards, The Sympathizer is one of the most acclaimed books of the twenty-first century. “ remarkable debut novel”-Philip Caputo, New York Times Book Review (cover review) Winner of the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Winner of the 2016 Edgar Award for Best First Novel Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

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