Post-War Americans
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s new collection of short stories, The Refugees, paints subtle portraits of the many shades of ‘refugee’. The following review by Jason Overdorf was originally published on India Today. The title of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s new collection of short stories, The Refugees, is a reminder that America once welcomed those displaced by […]
The Refugees: Rough Crossings
A collection of short stories delicately captures the traumas and triumphs of the migrant experience. The following review by Fatima Bhutto originally appeared in the Financial Times. Who are we when we lose our footing? When — by the stroke of circumstance and politics — we belong nowhere and everywhere at once? Viet Thanh Nguyen’s […]
SF Chronicle Reviews The Refugees
Rayyan Al-Shawaf of the San Francisco Chronicle reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s new short story collection, The Refugees. If you’re still unconvinced that “nothing ever dies,” a chilling expression that served as the title of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2016 nonfiction work about the lingering effects of the Vietnam War, you should meet the characters populating “The […]
Monocle Arts Review: The Refugees
John Mitchinson and Matt Alagiah discuss Viet Thanh Nguyen’s short story collection, The Refugees, along with new releases from Clover Stroud and Jacob Polley on the Monocle Arts Review. Click here to listen to the full podcast on Monocle, or read the transcript excerpt below. TRANSCRIPT Matt Alagiah: Let’s move on now to a collection […]
Author Viet Thanh Nguyen is a new voice for Vietnamese here
Peter Larsen interviews Viet Thanh Nguyen for the Orange County Register. You can read about Part 2 of the interview here. Viet Thanh Nguyen is on the kind of roll any author might envy. “The Sympathizer,” his 2015 debut novel, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Last year his nonfiction work, “Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam […]
Stories Behind The Refugees
SBTN and Hollywood First Look interview Viet Thanh Nguyen about The Refugees in this two-part interview. Part 1: Part 2:
‘The Refugees’ Author Says We Should All Know What It Is To Be An Outsider
Ari Shapiro talks with Viet Thanh Nguyen about his refugee experience on NPR’s All Things Considered. Listen to the interview here or read the transcript below. When author Viet Thanh Nguyen was 4 years old, he and his family fled South Vietnam and came to the U.S. as refugees. That’s about the same age his own son […]
Publishers Weekly Gives The Refugees Starred Review
Nat Sobel of Publishers Weekly reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s new short story collection, The Refugees. Each searing tale in Nguyen’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-winning The Sympathizer is a pressure cooker of unease, simmering with unresolved issues of memory and identity for the Vietnamese whose lives were disrupted by the “American War.” In “Black-Eyed Woman,” a […]
Viet Thanh Nguyen on Being a Refugee, an American — and a Human Being
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and Vietnam war refugee reflects on American identity. The following article was originally published in the Financial Times. I am a refugee, an American, and a human being, which is important to proclaim, as there are many who think these identities cannot be reconciled. In March 1975, as Saigon was about […]
The New Yorker: Refugees in America
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Viet Thanh Nguyen tells stories about people poised between their devastated homeland and their affluent adopted country. The following review was written by Joyce Carol Oates for The New Yorker. Consider the distinctions between the words “expat,” “immigrant,” “refugee.” “Expat” suggests a cosmopolitan spirit and resources that allow mobility; to be an “immigrant” […]
Viet Thanh Nguyen on His Timely Collection, ’The Refugees’
Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses The Refugees and his personal experiences as a refugee in this interview for KQED News. Viet Thanh Nguyen is an award-winning writer who grew up in San Jose after immigrating to the United States with his family in 1975 as a refugee fleeing the Communist-controlled country. He is a professor at the […]
Amid Era of Trumpism, Immigrant Tales of People not Politics
Anthony Domestico, a correspondent of the Boston Globe, reviews The Refugees. We’re in a moment of political turmoil. Whatever Trumpism is, it has tapped into a troubling strand of American nativism, and its rise has led critics and writers to call for more politically engaged literature. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s first collection of short stories, “The […]
‘The Refugees’ Review: Pulitzer Prize Winner Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Timely Story Collection
Marion Winik reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s short story collection, The Refugees, for Newsday. The mainstreaming of xenophobia that occurred during the last election cycle is a shocking reversal for a country once proud to be known as a melting pot. It was in this context that Vietnamese-American author Viet Thanh Nguyen published an op-ed piece in […]
Pulitzer Winner Viet Thanh Nguyen on His New Book The Refugees
Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses The Refugees with Sarah Begley in this interview for TIME. Viet Thanh Nguyen had a pretty spectacular 2016: his debut novel, The Sympathizer, about a Vietnamese double agent who goes to California after the Vietnam War, won the Pulitzer Prize after selling only 22,000 copies in hardcover. Thanks to that and other […]
Viet Thanh Nguyen on being a refugee and being unwanted
Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses The Refugees and his experiences in this interview for KCRW with Amy Ta. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen’s new book “The Refugees” is coming out at a time of heated national discussions around President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigrants and refugees coming to the United States. Nguyen, himself, is […]
