The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer #1)

by Viet Thanh Nguyen

What do those who struggle against power do when they seize power? What does the revolutionary do when the revolution triumphs? Why do those who call for independence and freedom take away the independence and freedom of others?

The war in Viet Nam posed all these questions, and the answers were tragic in the short term. My family fled from Viet Nam because of the answers to these questions. We were on the losing side, and the winners didn’t treat the losers very well. I do wonder if the suffering of the losers will matter in the long run. A hundred or two hundred years from now, will anyone care or remember what the losers went through when they lost power to the revolutionaries? The history of the American revolution would indicate that no one, or very few, will care. Who remembers the losers of the American revolution? It’s here that a novel might matter, by telling the story of the losers as much as the victors.