The Sympathizer: A Novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen. “I picked this for my ladies' book club and a month later it ended up winning the Pulitzer. The narrator is a Vietnamese national who fought for the army-turned refugee/spy in the United States. It's gritty but staggeringly beautifully written. And some humor mixed in as the narrator meets with a character reminiscent of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher who is off-kilter enough to believe in the cause. If you like The Human Condition by Andre Malraux or The Stranger by Albert Camus, with a bit of US Weekly flair as the narrator becomes an extra in the filming of Apocalypse Now, you should read it.”
