How long is it?
416 pages in the Grove Press 2016 paperback edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Political Fiction
The Sympathizer
Highly regardedPulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2016Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 62 / 100High
- Length
- 416 pagesGrove Press · 2016
- Reading time
- 8 h 15 minat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Variable
- Emotional intensity
- 5 / 5
About 8 h 15 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 17 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
As Saigon falls in 1975, an unnamed South Vietnamese army captain helps his general escape while secretly serving the communists. Half Vietnamese and half French, educated in America, he follows the general to Los Angeles and continues reporting on the refugees around him to his superiors in Vietnam. His commitment to revolution conflicts with his affection for the people he betrays.
Reader notes
Told as a confession, the literary spy novel is darkly funny and verbally dense, moving between espionage, refugee life, and extended arguments about race, identity, and political belief. The satire can be caustic, and graphic violence, torture, and sexual assault are substantial parts of the book.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Dense · Essayistic · Lyrical · Witty
- Tone
- Cerebral · Dark · Satirical · Unsettling
- Structure
- Framed · Nonlinear
- Driven by
- Character · Ideas · Voice
- Point of view
- First person
- Setting
- Los Angeles, United States · Vietnam
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 4 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Colonialism and empire
- Friendship
- Identity
- Migration and displacement
- Politics and ideology
- War
Content notes
- Violence
- Strong
- Sexual content
- Strong
- Swearing
- Strong
- Substance use
- Strong
- Abuse
- Strong
- Self-harm or suicide
- Mild
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2016
- Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, 2016
- Edgar Award, 2016
- International Dublin Literary Award shortlist, 2017
- PEN/Faulkner Award shortlist, 2016
- Los Angeles Times Book Prizes finalist, 2015
- Edgar Award — Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel, 2016
- Pulitzer Prize — Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2016
Series and reading order
The Sympathizer
- 1The Sympathizer · This book · 2015
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Grove Press · 2016 · paperback. ISBN 9780802124944.
What is the order of books in The Sympathizer?
1. The Sympathizer.
How long does it take to read The Sympathizer?
About 8 hours 15 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 416-page Grove Press edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen is a South Vietnamese-born American novelist, professor, and cultural critic whose fiction and nonfiction examine war, displacement, political allegiance, and national memory. He works through satire, historical argument, and voices caught between competing accounts of the same conflict. The Sympathizer makes this divided perspective structural. Framed as the confession of a communist agent within the South Vietnamese exile community, its dense, witty narration moves between espionage, refugee politics, and an American film production that turns war into spectacle. Nguyen pursues related questions in Nothing Ever Dies, a study of war and memory conceived as a companion to the novel, and as editor of the refugee-writer anthology The Displaced.
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Edition and details
- Publisher
- Grove Press
- Publication year
- 2016
- Format
- paperback
- Pages
- 416
- ISBN
- 9780802124944
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 2015
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Political Fiction · Historical Fiction · Mystery & Thriller · Literary fiction · Espionage thriller · Psychological fiction · War fiction · Dark comedy · Satire
- Editions
- 15
- Languages
- 4 (English, Hebrew, Unspecified, Chinese)