Praise for The Sympathizer : A National Bestseller Winner of the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Winner of the 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Winner of the 2015-2016 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (Adult Fiction) Finalist for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award Shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W. A gripping spy novel, a moving story of love and friendship, and a layered portrayal of a young man drawn into extreme politics, The Sympathizer examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today. And when he falls in love, he finds that his lofty ideals clash violently with his loyalties to the people close to him, a contradiction that may prove unresolvable. Under suspicion, the captain is forced to contemplate terrible acts in order to remain undetected. As the general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, the captain continues to observe the group, sending coded letters to an old friend who is now a higher-up within the communist administration. But, unbeknownst to the general, this captain is an undercover operative for the communists, who instruct him to add his own name to the list and accompany the general to America. 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. It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. The narrator, one of the most arresting of recent fiction, is a man of two minds and divided loyalties, a half-French half-Vietnamese communist sleeper agent living in America after the end of the war. One of 2015's most highly acclaimed debuts, The Sympathizer is a Vietnam War novel unlike any other.

The sympathizer book review