This article is about the novel. For the miniseries, see The Sympathizer (miniseries).
The Sympathizer
First edition cover
Author
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Audio read by
François Chau[1]
Cover artist
Christopher Moisan[2]
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Historical
Set in
Los Angeles, Vietnam
Publisher
Grove Press[3]
Publication date
7 April 2015[4]
Media type
Print (hardback & paperback), e-book, audiobook
Pages
416 pp.[3]
Awards
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2016) Edgar Award for Best First Novel (2016) Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction (2016) Center for Fiction First Novel Prize (2015) Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction (2016) Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Adult Fiction (2015)
ISBN
978-0-8021-2345-9 (hardback)[5]
Dewey Decimal
813/.6
LC Class
PS3614.G97 S96 2015
Followed by
The Committed
The Sympathizer is the 2015 debut novel by Vietnamese-American professor and writer Viet Thanh Nguyen. It is a best-selling novel,[6] and recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel received generally positive acclaim from critics,[7] it was named on more than 30 best book of the year lists and a New York Times Editor's Choice.[8]
The novel incorporates elements from a number of different novel genres: mystery, political, metafiction,[9] dark comedic,[10] historical, spy, and war.[11] The story depicts the anonymous narrator, a North Vietnamese mole in the South Vietnamese army, who stays embedded in a South Vietnamese community in exile in the United States. While in the United States, the narrator describes being an expatriate and a cultural advisor on the filming of an American film, closely resembling Platoon and Apocalypse Now, before returning to Vietnam as part of a guerrilla raid against the communists.
The dual identity of the narrator, as a mole and immigrant, and the Americanization of the Vietnam War in international literature are central themes in the novel. The novel was published 40 years to the month after the fall of Saigon, which is the initial scene of the book.[12]
The novel was adapted as a television series of the same name, which premiered in April 2024, produced by A24 for HBO Max.
A sequel, titled The Committed, was published on March 2, 2021.[13]
^"The Sympathizer (Audiobook) by Viet Thanh Nguyen". Audible. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
^Viet Thanh Nguyen (2 April 2015). The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). Grove Atlantic. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-8021-9169-4. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
^ ab"The Sympathizer". Grove Atlantic. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
^Thanh Nguyen, Viet (7 April 2015). "The Sympathizer". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 30 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
^"The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen". Tulane University Libraries. Archived from the original on 30 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
^"The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen". Los Angeles Times. May 2015. Archived from the original on 1 November 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
^"Book Marks reviews of The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen". Book Marks. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
^"Editors' Choice". The New York Times. 10 April 2015. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
^Boyagoda, Randy (12 March 2016). "The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen review – a bold, artful debut". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
^Cite error: The named reference TNYT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Author Viet Thanh Nguyen Discusses 'The Sympathizer' And His Escape From Vietnam". NPR. 17 May 2016. Archived from the original on 30 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
^NPR Staff (11 April 2015). "A Dark, Funny — And Vietnamese — Look At The Vietnam War". NPR. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
^Khatib, Joumana (24 February 2021). "16 New Books to Watch For in March". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
TheSympathizer is the 2015 debut novel by Vietnamese-American professor and writer Viet Thanh Nguyen. It is a best-selling novel, and recipient of the...
Little Asian" is the second episode of the American historical black comedy drama miniseries TheSympathizer, based on the novel of the same name by Viet...
black comedy drama television series TheSympathizer. The miniseries is an adaptation of the 2015 novel of the same name written by Viet Thanh Nguyen...
California. Nguyen's debut novel, TheSympathizer, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel...
/-si.ɪzəm/), the common name in English for National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus, German: [natsi̯oˈnaːlzotsi̯aˌlɪsmʊs] ), is the far-right totalitarian...
Labour Party (the Social Democrats) to identify a vacillating political sympathizer. In Chapter 2, "The Literary 'Fellow-Travellers' of the Revolution"...
The Committed is a 2021 novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen. It is his second novel and the sequel to his debut novel TheSympathizer (2015), which sold over one...
Marxists, Peronist guerrillas, and alleged sympathizers. Most of the victims were casualties of state terrorism. The opposing guerrillas' victims numbered...
tax the American colonies, and he sympathized with those who resisted British rule. Historically, debate about the consecration of bishops was ongoing...
addition to supplying White Army forces and their sympathizers with food, a successful seizure of the 1920 Ukrainian grain harvest would have had a devastating...
that they travelled to the wrong location. While there, she meets Lawrence, a far-right university professor and nazi sympathizer, who offers to let her...
Confederate sympathizer. The Chesapeake Affair was one of the most sensational international incidents that occurred during the American Civil War. The incident...
organized Communist Party and the newly appointed army's chief of staff, Afif al-Bizri, was a Communist sympathizer. This caused the Syrian Crisis of 1957 after...
sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln is remembered as a martyr and a national hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts to preserve the Union...
provides a compassionate yet compliant portrait of humanity. J. F. sympathizes with the replicants, whom he sees as companions, and he shares their shorter...
views of the world. The Atlantic pondered whether Martin ultimately intended the readers to sympathize with characters on both sides of the Lannister–Stark...
President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Lincoln died early the next morning. Lincoln's vice president, Andrew Johnson, was...
deals with local sympathizers to ensure that when the operation began there would be well‑armed "local self‑defense groups" on the streets for support...
transportation, and safe houses and assistance provided by abolitionist sympathizers. Individuals were often organized in small, independent groups; this...
explored new sources. In the 1960s, while many scholars dismissed Mao's initiatives as ideological and destructive, others sympathized with his goals. They...
interviewed Reagan and he provided them with the names of actors whom he believed to be communist sympathizers. During a House Un-American Activities Committee...
flashbacks). As the work progresses, two central themes are revealed: Lord Darlington was a Nazi sympathizer; and Stevens is in love with Miss Kenton, the housekeeper...
Norwegians that he was a Nazi sympathizer, a kind of appropriation of the independent artist. The city of Oslo bought the Ekely estate from Munch's heirs...
assaulted. In late January 1990, the OAS observer team reported that "a convoy of troops attacked four truckloads of UNO sympathizers with bayonets and rifle butts...
former soldier, sympathized with the anticommunist view. He did, however, protest the violence that took place in the Vietnam War. With the song "Machine...
sympathizers across the country. Around 500,000-1,000,000 casualties were massacred. The killings were mostly done by the locals with the help of the...
Global Information