Which 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was written by Viet Thanh Nguyen?

The Sympathizer was the 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Viet Thanh Nguyen.

The novel is narrated by an unnamed Vietnamese communist spy who works within the South Vietnamese community after the fall of Saigon. His divided loyalties shape a story about espionage, exile, ideology, and the consequences of the Vietnam War.

The Pulitzer citation highlighted its layered portrayal of a man with two minds and two countries. Published in 2015, The Sympathizer was Nguyen’s debut novel and received the Pulitzer for Fiction the following year.

It is often confused with The Orphan Master’s Son, which won the 2013 Pulitzer and is set in North Korea. The Sympathizer also differs from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s later related novel, The Committed, which continues the narrator’s story but did not win the Pulitzer.