Advance Praise for The Sympathizer

“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 Sympathizer-PW-336x280 “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

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 & Miraculous Cures and The Headmaster’s Wager cover front

“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

“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

“Viet Nguyen is a writer with a capacious imagination, a finely honed craft, an elegance with language and a voice both fluid and fiercely honest. Weaving genres, entertainment and a nuanced political sensibility, Viet transports the reader into a world at once familiar and new, at once unsettling and yet intriguing. A gorgeous book that carries the weight of history and the intervention of fiction effortlessly.” —Chris Abani, The Secret History of Las Vegas and GraceLand  

THE SYMPATHIZER will be available in April 2015.

Download the SYMPATHIZER catalog pages from Grove/Atlantic

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