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.