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Why it matters
Nguyen overturns familiar American narratives of the Vietnam War through a divided narrator.
A celebrated work
The Sympathizer
Viet Thanh Nguyen2016 selection · Literary fiction
The Sympathizer
A communist double agent escapes Saigon with South Vietnamese officers and reports on their California exile. His confession moves through espionage, friendship, filmmaking, and revolutionary violence.
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Read this if…
You enjoy intellectually fierce spy fiction with black comedy.
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Ideas inside
Vietnam Warespionageexileidentity
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