The Committed

Both literary thriller and brilliant novel of ideas,The Committed is a blistering portrayal of commitment and betrayal that will cement Viet Thanh Nguyen's position in the firmament of American letters.

"The Committed is a rich and exhilarating story of friendship, loyalty, and greed. Set in 1980s Paris, it follows the characters fromThe Sympathizer as they try to fashion new lives among all the wretched of the earth. Viet Thanh Nguyen gives us an unsparing look at the poisonous effects of ideology-whether colonialism, communism, or capitalism-even as he explores the deep-seated need we all have to believe in something. A deep, compelling and humorous portrait of how we are shaped by fictions others have for us."-Laila Lalami, author ofThe Other Americans, finalist for the National Book Award

Praise for Viet Thanh Nguyen:

"One of our great chroniclers of displacement . . . All Nguyen's fiction is pervaded by a shared intensity of vision, by stinging perceptions that drift like windblown ashes."-Joyce Carol Oates,New Yorker

"A layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a ‘man of two minds'-and two countries, Vietnam and the United States."-Pulitzer Prize Citation forThe Sympathizer

"Remarkable . . . His book fills a void in the literature, giving voice to the previously voiceless . . . Compares favorably with masters like Conrad, Greene, and le Carré . . . An absurdist tour de force that might have been written by a Kafka or Genet."-Philip Caputo,New York Times Book Review (cover review), onThe Sympathizer

"Intelligent, relentlessly paced and savagely funny . . . The voice of the double-agent narrator, caustic yet disarmingly honest, etches itself on the memory."-Sam Sacks,Wall Street Journal, "Best Books of the Year," onThe Sympathizer

"A fast-paced, entertaining read . . . A much-needed Vietnamese perspective on the war."-Bill Gates,Gates Notes, onThe Sympathizer

"Extraordinary . . . Surely a new classic of war fiction . . . I haven't read anything since Orwell'sNineteen Eighty-Four that illustrates so palpably how a patient tyrant, unmoored from all humane constraint, can reduce a man's mind to liquid."-Ron Charles,Washington Post, onThe Sympathizer

"We've never had a story quite like this one before . . . Mr. Nguyen is a master of the telling ironic phrase and the biting detail, and the book pulses withCatch-22-style absurdities."-Sarah Lyall,New York Times, onThe Sympathizer

"Beautifully written and meaty . . . I had that kid-like feeling of being inside the book."-Claire Messud,Boston Globe, onThe Sympathizer

"Thrilling in its virtuosity, as in its masterly exploitation of the espionage-thriller genre . . . The book's (unnamed) narrator speaks in an audaciously postmodernist voice, echoing not only Vladimir Nabokov and Ralph Ellison but the Dostoyevsky ofNotes from the Underground."-Joyce Carol Oates,New Yorker, onThe Sympathizer

"Gleaming and uproarious, a dark comedy of confession filled with charlatans, delusionists and shameless opportunists . . .The Sympathizer, like Graham Greene'sThe Quiet American, examines American intentions, often mixed with hubris, benevolence and ineptitude, that lead the country into conflict."-Jeffrey Fleishman,Los Angeles Times, onThe Sympathizer

"Dazzling . . . A fascinating exploration of personal identity, cultural identity, and what it means to sympathize with two sides at once."-John Powers,Fresh Air, NPR, "Books I Wish I'd Reviewed," onThe Sympathizer

"As a writer, [Nguyen] brings every conceivable gift―wisdom, wit, compassion, curiosity―to the impossible yet crucial work of arriving at what he calls ‘a just memory' of this war."―Kate Tuttle,Los Angeles Times, onNothing Ever Dies

"Nguyen's lucid, arresting, and richly sourced inquiry, in the mode of Susan Sontag and W. G. Sebald, is a call for true and just stories of war and its perpetual legacy."―Donna Seaman,Booklist, onNothing Ever Dies (starred review)

"A beautiful collection that deftly illustrates the experiences of the kinds of people our country has, until recently, welcomed with open arms . . . An urgent, wonderful collection that proves that fiction can be more than mere storytelling-it can bear witness to the lives of people who we can't afford to forget."-Michael Schaub, NPR Books, onThe Refugees

"This is an important and incisive book written by a major writer with firsthand knowledge of the human rights drama exploding on the international stage–and the talent to give us inroads toward understanding it . . . It is refreshing and essential to have this work from a writer who knows and feels the terrain on an intellectual, emotional and cellular level–it shows . . . An exquisite book."-Megan Mayhew Bergman,Washington Post, onThe Refugees

"Confirms Nguyen as an agile, trenchant writer, able to inhabit a number of contrary points of view. And it whets your appetite for his next novel."-Michael Upchurch,Seattle Times, onThe Refugees

"A short-story collection mostly plumbing the experience of boat-bound Vietnamese who escaped to California . . . Ultimately, Nguyen enlarges empathy, the high ideal of literature and the enemy of hate and fear."-Boris Kachka,New York, onThe Refugees

"The book we need now . . . The most timely short story collection in recent memory . . . Throughout, Nguyen demonstrates the richness of the refugee experience, while also foregrounding the very real trauma that lies at its core."-Doree Shafrir,BuzzFeed, onThe Refugees