The Sympathizer
A Novel (pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
Grove/Atlantic · Print & ebook · April 22, 2016
Now an HBO Limited Series from Executive Producers Park Chan-wook and Robert Downey Jr., Streaming Exclusively on Max 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 One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century One of TIME’s 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time “[A] remarkable debut novel.”—Philip Caputo, New York Times Book Review (cover review) Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize, a startling debut novel from a powerful new voice featuring one of the most remarkable narrators of recent fiction: a conflicted subversive and idealist working as a double agent in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
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- Who it’s for
- Readers interested in political thrillers with espionage elements
- Themes
- identity, espionage, love and betrayal
- Pacing
- Mixed
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Now an HBO Limited Series from Executive Producers Park Chan-wook and Robert Downey Jr., Streaming Exclusively on Max 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 One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century One of TIME’s 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time “[A] remarkable debut novel.”—Philip Caputo, New York Times Book Review (cover review) Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize, a startling debut novel from a powerful new voice featuring one of the most remarkable narrators of recent fiction: a conflicted subversive and idealist working as a double agent in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
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The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as seven other awards, The Sympathizer is the breakthrough novel of the year. With the pace and suspense of a thriller and prose that has been compared to Graham Greene and Saul Bellow, The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a “man of two minds,” a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come 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. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.
Who it’s for
- Readers interested in political thrillers with espionage elements
- Readers intrigued by post-Vietnam War identity and immigrant experiences
Where it sits
| Spy Fiction | 65% |
|---|---|
| Asian American Fiction | 40% |
| Post–World War II Fiction | 25% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Spy Fiction
- Literary Fiction
- Asian American Fiction
- Authors
- Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Publisher
- Grove/Atlantic
- Published
- April 22, 2016
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- identity · espionage · love and betrayal
- Reading lane
- Spy Fiction