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Bucheon City of Literature

Winner

The 2023 Winner
The Sympathizer

The Sympathizer (2016)

‘As a captain in the South Vietnamese army and secret agent for the CIA, I fled to the US with the family of a general, my superior, right before the fall of Saigon in April 1975. However, I was actually a resident spy who had been planted in the south by North Vietnam. After emigrating to the US I lived as a migrant and double agent, spying on Vietnamese people and passing on information.’
This novel offers insight into the hidden side of Vietnamese and American society directly after the Vietnam War through pointed, humorous and satirical prose and highly experimental literary devices.

  • About the Author

    Viet Thanh Nguyen
    Viet Thanh Nguyen

    American novelist and professor who was born in Vietnam on March 13, 1971. Nyugen grew up in the US after moving there with his whole family following the fall of Saigon in 1975. He majored in English Literature and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, and is currently teaching English Literature and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC.

    Nyugen released his first full-length novel The Sympathizer in 2016. This book went on to win the 2016 Pulitzer Prize and also swept up a host of other awards including the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from an American Author, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in Fiction and the California Book Award for First Fiction. The Sympathizer was also chosen as book of the year by multiple media outlets including the New York Times, The Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, Slate and the Washington Post. Nyugen a book of short stories titled The Refugees in February 2017, and published The Committed as a sequel to The Sympathizer in 2022.

  • Korean translation

    Hee-Yong KIM
    Hee-Yong KIM

    Hee-Yong KIM graduated from Ewha Womans University’s Department of English Language and Literature, and later completed her PhD studies at the same graduate school. She is currently a professional novel translator and has lectured at Baewha Women's University, Gangseo University and Sungkyul University, among others. In addition to The Sympathizer, KIM’s translated works include The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (joint translator), O. Henry Short Stories by O. Henry, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood, The Farm by Joanne Ramos, Normal People by Sally Rooney, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan and Viet Thanh Nguyen’s latest novel The Committed.

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