The Sympathizer
“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 Crime Reads Pick of Crime Novels Exploring the Vietnam War Aftermath
Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
Winner of the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize
A New York Times Book Review Book of the Year
A Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year selection
A Washington Post Best Book of 2016
An Oprah’s Book Club Selection
A Literary Hub Pick of the 20 Best Novels of the Decade
Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2016
A profound, startling, and beautifully crafted debut novel, The Sympathizer is the story of a man of two minds, someone whose political beliefs clash with his individual loyalties.
It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong.
The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.
Praise