Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and raised in America. He is the author of The Committed, which continues the story of The Sympathizer, awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, alongside seven other prizes. He is also the author of the short story collection The Refugees; the nonfiction book Nothing Ever Dies, a finalist for the National Book Award; and is the editor of an anthology of refugee writing, The Displaced. He is the Aerol Arnold Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations. He lives in Los Angeles.
Praise for The Sympathizer: Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction
Winner of the 2016 Edgar Award for Best First Novel
Winner of the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in
Fiction
Winner of the 2016 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction
Winner of the 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
Winner of the 2015-2016 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
(Adult Fiction)
Winner of the 2016 California Book Award for First Fiction
Winner of the 2017 Association for Asian American Studies Award for
Best Book in Creative Writing (Prose)
Finalist for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award
Finalist for the 2016 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut
Fiction
Finalist for the 2016 Medici Book Club Prize
Finalist for the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
(Mystery/Thriller)
Finalist for the 2016 ABA Indies Choice/E.B. White Read-Aloud Award
(Book of the Year, Adult Fiction)
Shortlisted for the 2017 International Dublin Literary AwardOne of
TIME's 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time 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
"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 "[A] remarkable debut novel . . .
[Nguyen] brings a distinctive perspective to the war and its
aftermath. His book fills a void in the literature, giving voice to
the previously voiceless . . . The nameless protagonist-narrator, a
memorable character despite his anonymity, is an Americanized
Vietnamese with a divided heart and mind. Nguyen's skill in
portraying this sort of ambivalent personality compares favorably
with masters like Conrad, Greene, and le Carr�. . . . Both thriller
and social satire. . . . 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) "This is more than a fresh perspective on a familiar
subject. [The Sympathizer] is intelligent, relentlessly paced and
savagely funny . . . 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) "Nguyen doesn't shy away
from how traumatic the Vietnam War was for everyone involved. Nor
does he pass judgment about where his narrator's loyalties should
lie. Most war stories are clear about which side you should root
for--The Sympathizer doesn't let the reader off the hook so easily
. . . Despite how dark it is, The Sympathizer is still a
fast-paced, entertaining read . . . a much-needed Vietnamese
perspective on the war."--Bill Gates, Gates Notes "Extraordinary .
. . Surely a new classic of war fiction. . . . [Nguyen] has wrapped
a cerebral thriller around a desperate expat story that confronts
the existential dilemmas of our age. . . . Laced with insight on
the ways nonwhite people are rendered invisible in the propaganda
that passes for our pop culture. . . . 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 "The great
achievement of The Sympathizer is that it gives the Vietnamese a
voice and demands that we pay attention. Until now, it's been
largely a one-sided conversation--or at least that's how it seems
in American popular culture . . . We've never had a story quite
like this one before. . . . [Nguyen] has a great deal to say and a
knowing, playful, deeply intelligent voice . . . There are so many
passages to admire. Mr. Nguyen is a master of the telling ironic
phrase and the biting detail, and the book pulses with
Catch-22-style absurdities."--New York Times "Beautifully written
and meaty . . . really compelling. I had that kid-like feeling of
being inside the book."--Claire Messud, Boston Globe "Thrilling in
its virtuosity, as in its masterly exploitation of the
espionage-thriller genre, The Sympathizer was awarded the Pulitzer
Prize, and has come to be considered one of the greatest of Vietnam
War novels . . . The book's (unnamed) narrator speaks in an
audaciously postmodernist voice, echoing not only Vladimir Nabokov
and Ralph Ellison but the Dostoyevsky of Notes from the
Underground."--Joyce Carol Oates, New Yorker "Gleaming and
uproarious, a dark comedy of confession filled with charlatans,
delusionists and shameless opportunists . . . The Sympathizer, like
Graham Greene's The Quiet American, examines American intentions,
often mixed with hubris, benevolence and ineptitude, that lead the
country into conflict."--Los Angeles Times "Both a riveting spy
novel and a study in identity."--Entertainment Weekly "This debut
is a page-turner (read: everybody will finish) that makes you
reconsider the Vietnam War (read: everyone will have an opinion) .
. . Nguyen's darkly comic novel offers a point of view about
American culture that we've rarely seen."--Oprah.com (Oprah's Book
Club Suggestions) "The novel's best parts are painful, hilarious
exposures of white tone-deafness . . . [the] satire is
delicious."--New Yorker "The Sympathizer reads as part literary
historical fiction, part espionage thriller and part satire.
American perceptions of Asians serve as some of the book's most
deliciously tart commentary . . . Nguyen knows of what he
writes."--Los Angeles Times "Sparkling and audacious . . . Unique
and startling . . . Nguyen's prose is often like a feverish,
frenzied dream, a profuse and lively stream of images sparking off
the page. . . . Nguyen can be wickedly funny. . . . [His] narrator
has an incisive take on Asian-American history and what it means to
be a nonwhite American. . . . this remarkable, rollicking read by a
Vietnamese immigrant heralds an exciting new voice in American
literature."--Seattle Times "Stunned, amazed, impressed. [The
Sympathizer is] so skillfully and brilliantly executed that I
cannot believe this is a first novel. (I should add jealous to my
emotions.) Upends our notions of the Vietnam novel."--Chicago
Tribune "A very special, important, brilliant novel . . . Amazing .
. . I don't say brilliant about a lot of books, but this is a
brilliant book . . . A fabulous book . . . that everyone should
read."--Nancy Pearl, KUOW.org "Dazzling . . . I've read scads of
Vietnam War books, but The Sympathizer has an exciting quality I
haven't encountered . . . A fascinating exploration of personal
identity, cultural identity, and what it means to sympathize with
two sides at once."--John Powers, Fresh Air, NPR (Books I Wish I'd
Reviewed) "Powerful and evocative . . . Gripping."--San Francisco
Chronicle "Welcome a unique new voice to the literary chorus. . . .
[The Sympathizer] is, among other things, a character-driven
thriller, a political satire, and a biting historical account of
colonization and revolution. It dazzles on all fronts."--Cleveland
Plain Dealer "[Nguyen's] books perform an optic tilt about Vietnam
and what America did there as profound as Ralph Ellison's Invisible
Man and Toni Morrison's Beloved were to the legacy of racism and
slavery."--John Freeman, Literary Hub "For those who have been
waiting for the great Vietnamese American Vietnam War novel, this
is it. More to the point: This is a great American Vietnam War
novel. . . . It is the last word (I hope) on the horrors of the
Vietnamese re-education camps that our allies were sentenced to
when we left them swinging in the wind."--Vietnam Veterans of
America "What a story . . . [An] absorbing, elegantly written book
. . . If you are an American, of any culture or color, you will
benefit from reading this book which offers, in exquisite thought
and phrase, the multi-layered experience of a war most Americans
have blotted out of consciousness, suppressed, or willfully
ignored. I've been waiting to read this book for decades."--Alice
Walker, author of The Color Purple "Magisterial. A disturbing,
fascinating and darkly comic take on the fall of Saigon and its
aftermath, and a powerful examination of guilt and betrayal. The
Sympathizer is destined to become a classic and redefine the way we
think about the Vietnam War and what it means to win and to
lose."--T.C. Boyle "Trapped in endless civil war, 'the man who has
two minds' tortures and is tortured as he tries to meld the halves
of his country and of himself. Viet Thanh Nguyen accomplishes this
integration in a magnificent feat of storytelling. The Sympathizer
is a novel of literary, historical, and political
importance."--Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Fifth Book of
Peace "It is a strong, strange and liberating joy to read this
book, feeling with each page that a broken world is being knitted
back together, once again whole and complete. As far as I am
concerned, Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer--both a great
American novel and a great Vietnamese novel--will close the shelf
on the literature of the Vietnam War."--Bob Shacochis, author of
The Woman Who Lost Her Soul "Read this novel with care; it is easy
to read, wry, ironic, wise, and captivating, but it could change
not only your outlook on the Vietnam War, but your outlook on what
you believe about politics and ideology in general. It does what
the best of literature does, expands your consciousness beyond the
limitations of your body and individual circumstances."--Karl
Marlantes, author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War
"Not only does Viet Thanh Nguyen bring a rare and authentic voice
to the body of American literature generated by the Vietnam War, he
has created a book that transcends history and politics and
nationality and speaks to the enduring theme of literature: the
universal quest for self, for identity. The Sympathizer is a
stellar debut by a writer of depth and skill."--Robert Olen Butler,
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange
Mountain "The Sympathizer is a remarkable and brilliant book. By
turns harrowing, and cut through by shards of unexpected and
telling humor, this novel gives us the conflict in Vietnam, and its
aftermath, in a way that is deeply truthful, and vitally
important."--Vincent Lam, author of Bloodletting and Miraculous
Cures and The Headmaster's Wager "I think I'd have to go all the
way back to Nabokov's Humbert Humbert to find the last narrative
voice that so completely conked me over the head and took me
prisoner. Nguyen and his unnamed protagonist certainly have made a
name for themselves with one of the smartest, darkest, funniest
books you'll read this year."--David Abrams, author of Fobbit
"Audaciously and vividly imagined. A compelling read."--Andrew X.
Pham, author of Catfish and Mandala "Nguyen's cross-grained
protagonist exposes the hidden costs in both countries of America's
tragic Asian misadventure. Nguyen's probing literary art
illuminates how Americans failed in their political and military
attempt to remake Vietnam--but then succeeded spectacularly in
shrouding their failure in Hollywood distortions. Compelling--and
profoundly unsettling."--Booklist (starred review) "A closely
written novel of after-the-war Vietnam, when all that was solid
melted into air. As Graham Greene and Robert Stone have taught us,
on the streets of Saigon, nothing is as it seems. . . . Think Alan
Furst meets Elmore Leonard, and you'll capture Nguyen at his most
surreal . . . Both chilling and funny, and a worthy addition to the
library of first-rate novels about the Vietnam War."--Kirkus
Reviews (starred review) "[An] astonishing first novel . . .
Nguyen's novel enlivens debate about history and human nature, and
his narrator has a poignant often mindful voice."--Publishers
Weekly (starred, boxed review) "Breathtakingly cynical, the novel
has its hilarious moments . . . Ultimately a meditation on war,
political movements, America's imperialist role, the CIA, torture,
loyalty, and one's personal identity, this is a powerful,
thought-provoking work. It's hard to believe this effort . . . is a
debut. This is right up there with Denis Johnson's Tree of
Smoke."--Library Journal (starred review) "I cannot remember the
last time I read a novel whose protagonist I liked so much. Smart,
funny, and self-critical, with a keen sense of when to let a story
speak for itself (and when to gloss it with commentary). He's
someone I would like to have a beer with, despite the fact that his
life's work is the betrayal of his friends. . . . [Nguyen] proves a
gifted and bold satirist."--Barnes & Noble Review "Riveting . . .
The Sympathizer is not only a masterly espionage novel, but also a
seminal work of 21st century American fiction. Giving voice to the
Vietnamese experience in the United States, Nguyen offers profound
insights into the legacy of war and the politically and racially
charged atmosphere of the 1970s."--BookReporter "[A] shimmering
debut novel . . . Leaping with lyrical verve, each page turns to a
unique and hauntingly familiar voice that refuses to let us forget
what people are capable of doing to each other."--Asian American
Writers' Workshop "Arresting . . . One of the best pieces of
fiction about the Vietnam war--and by a Vietnamese. . . . Stunning
. . . Could it be that Nguyen has captured the shape of the
devolution of war itself, from grand ambition to human ruin? . . .
One of the finest novels of the Vietnam War published in recent
years."--The Daily Beast "[An] intriguing confessional . . . [a]
tour de force . . . So taken was I by the first quarter of the book
that I believed myself to be reading an actual confession . . . The
character himself . . . and the quality of the narration seized me,
leaving me almost breathless in my pursuit of an ending."--Sewanee
Review "Tremendously funny, with a demanding verbal texture . . .
Both tender and a bit of a romp, the book reminded me of how big
books can be."--Guardian (Best Books of 2015) "Astounding . . .
[The unnamed narrator] will be compared to the morally exhausted
spies, intelligence officers and double agents of Joseph Conrad,
Graham Greene, and John le Carr�."--Toronto Star
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