{"title":"Books by Viet Thanh Nguyen","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781472151360","title":"The Sympathizer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL 2016\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 2016\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A fierce novel written in a refreshingly high style and charged with intelligent rage' \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A bold, artful and globally minded reimagining of the Vietnam war . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e is an excellent literary novel, and one that ends, with unsettling present-day resonance, in a refugee boat where opposing ideas about intentions, actions and their consequences take stark and resilient human form' the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Beautifully written and meaty'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eClaire Messud\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'[A] remarkable debut novel . . . In its final chapters, \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e becomes an absurdist tour de force that might have been written by a Kafka or Genet'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'This debut is a page-turner (read: everybody will finish) that makes you reconsider the Vietnam War ... Nguyen's darkly comic novel offers a point of view about American culture that we've rarely seen'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOprah.com (Oprah's Book Club Suggestions)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204436328626,"sku":"9781472151360","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781472151360_521815be-7287-4497-a032-4ca1dba94d95.jpg?v=1786021282"},{"product_id":"9781472153784","title":"The Refugees","description":"In \u003ci\u003eThe Refugees,\u003c\/i\u003e Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of immigration. The second piece of fiction by a major new voice, \u003ci\u003eThe Refugees\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautifully written and sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, and the relationships and desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204466933938,"sku":"9781472153784","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781472153784.jpg?v=1786020403"},{"product_id":"9781472152534","title":"The Committed","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A voice that shakes the walls of the old literary comfort zone'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e New Yorker \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Goes toe to toe with the original then surpasses it. A masterwork'  \u003c\/b\u003eMarlon James, Booker Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003ea Brief History of Seven Killings\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Fierce and unrelentingly good. Hilarious and subversive' \u003c\/b\u003eTommy Orange, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThere There\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's the early 1980s and the Sympathizer arrives in Paris. As a refugee, he and his blood brother Bon try to escape their turbulent pasts by turning their hands to capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing. No longer in physical danger, the Sympathizer is both charmed and disturbed by Paris. Falling in with left-wing intellectuals and politicians at dinner parties held by his French Vietnamese \"aunt\", he finds customers for his merchandise as well as stimulation for his mind. But this new life he's living has unforeseen dangers of oppression, addiction and the seemingly unresolvable paradox of reuniting his two closest friends, men whose world views stand them poles apart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe highly suspenseful sequel to \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e, both literary thriller and brilliant novel of ideas, \u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e is a blistering portrayal of commitment and betrayal that will cement Viet Thanh Nguyen's position in the firmament of American letters.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43204482564274,"sku":"9781472152534","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57688238653813,"sku":"9781472152503","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781472152534.jpg?v=1792686183"},{"product_id":"9780674298170","title":"To Save and to Destroy – Writing as an Other","description":"Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award in CriticismFrom the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer comes a moving and unflinchingly personal meditation on the literary forms of otherness and a bold call for expansive political solidarity.   Born in war-ravaged Vietnam, Viet Nguyen arrived in the United States as a child refugee in 1975. The Nguyen family would soon move to San Jose, California, where the author grew up, attending UC Berkeley in the aftermath of the shocking murder of Vincent Chin, which shaped the political sensibilities of a new generation of Asian Americans.   The essays here, delivered originally as the prestigious Norton Lectures, proffer a new answer to a classic literary question: What does the outsider mean to literary writing? Over the course of six captivating and moving chapters, Nguyen explores the idea of being an outsider through lenses that are, by turns, literary, historical, political, and familial.   Each piece moves between writers who influenced Nguyen’s craft and weaves in the haunting story of his late mother’s mental illness. Nguyen unfolds the novels and nonfiction of Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison, William Carlos Williams, and Maxine Hong Kingston, until aesthetic theories give way to pressing concerns raised by war and politics. What is a writer’s responsibility in a time of violence? Should we celebrate fiction that gives voice to the voiceless—or do we confront the forces that render millions voiceless in the first place? What are the burdens and pleasures of the “minor” writer in any society? Unsatisfied with the modest inclusion accorded to “model minorities” such as Asian Americans, Nguyen sets the agenda for a more radical and disquieting solidarity with those whose lives have been devastated by imperialism and forever wars.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56292947067253,"sku":"9780674298170","price":22.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780674298170_3b64a53a-f987-4c77-b6fc-0f49df4b190d.jpg?v=1786014667"},{"product_id":"9780802127365","title":"The Refugees","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/em\u003e, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, \u003cem\u003eThe Refugees\u003c\/em\u003e is the second piece of fiction from a powerful voice in American letters, praised as “beautiful and heartrending” (Joyce Carol Oates, \u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e), “terrific” (\u003cem\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/em\u003e), and “an important and incisive book” (\u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished in hardcover to astounding acclaim, \u003cem\u003eThe Refugees\u003c\/em\u003e is the remarkable debut collection of short stories by Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel \u003cem\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/em\u003e. In these powerful stories, written over a period of twenty years and set in both Vietnam and America, Nguyen paints a vivid portrait of the experiences of people leading lives between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the same incisiveness as in \u003cem\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/em\u003e, in \u003cem\u003eThe Refugees\u003c\/em\u003e Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to the hopes and expectations of people making life-changing decisions to leave one country for another, and the rifts in identity, loyalties, romantic relationships, and family that accompany relocation. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of migration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe second work of fiction by a major new voice in American letters, \u003cem\u003eThe Refugees\u003c\/em\u003e is a beautifully written and sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, and the relationships and desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294987071861,"sku":"9780802127365","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780802127365_1078cecf-2039-41c7-a892-c67ded9ecbc8.jpg?v=1786033039"},{"product_id":"9780674302457","title":"This Craft of Verse","description":"“A wondrously limpid testament to the pleasures of reading.” —Steven Poole, The GuardianSix incandescent lectures on literature from the patron saint of mirrors, metafiction, and infinite libraries.   For more than thirty years, Jorge Luis Borges’s Norton Lectures went unpublished. Recorded at Harvard in 1967 and 1968, the tapes gathered dust in a library vault until their discovery after his death. It was a twist that the author of Labyrinths would have relished. This volume assembles the recovered materials, offering a priceless window into the Argentinian master’s lifelong love affair with the English language.   This Craft of Verse captures the cadences, candor, wit, and erudition of one of the twentieth century’s enduring literary voices. Though his avowed topic is poetry, Borges explores subjects ranging from prose forms—especially the novel—to literary history, translation theory, and philosophical aspects of communication writ large. Borges here draws on a wide range of literary examples—modern and medieval English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, and Chinese. He brings characteristic eloquence and inexhaustible enthusiasm to readings of Plato, the Old Norse kenningar, Byron, Poe, Chesterton, Joyce, and Frost, as well as translations of Homer, the Bible, and the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.   Whether discussing metaphor, the origins of verse, or his own “poetic creed,” Borges gives a performance as entertaining as it is intellectually engaging. A lesson in the love of literature and the making of a unique artistic sensibility, This Craft of Verse is a sustained encounter with one of the writers whose place in the twentieth century will be forever remembered.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311843848565,"sku":"9780674302457","price":19.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780674302457.jpg?v=1791213009"},{"product_id":"9780674979840","title":"Nothing Ever Dies – Vietnam and the Memory of War","description":"Finalist, National Book Critics Circle AwardFinalist, National Book Award in NonfictionA New York Times Book Review “The Year in Reading” SelectionAll  wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second  time in memory. From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Sympathizer  comes a searching exploration of the conflict Americans call the  Vietnam War and Vietnamese call the American War—a conflict that lives  on in the collective memory of both nations.   “[A] gorgeous,  multifaceted examination of the war Americans call the Vietnam War—and  which Vietnamese call the American War…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“In Nothing Ever Dies,  his unusually thoughtful consideration of war, self-deception and  forgiveness, Viet Thanh Nguyen penetrates deeply into memories of the  Vietnamese war…[An] important book, which hits hard at self-serving  myths.”—Jonathan Mirsky, Literary Review“Ultimately,  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 (starred review)","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311845323125,"sku":"9780674979840","price":18.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780674979840_c53d15ba-4406-491d-a91a-a43204054080.jpg?v=1786014924"},{"product_id":"9780063399853","title":"The Best American Short Stories 2026","description":"\u003cp\u003eDesire. Longing. Tenderness. Passion. In this year’s volume, love lies at the heart of the stories that guest editor Viet Thanh Nguyen calls “so good that they may be bad for you”: a sixteen-year-old moves into town and effortlessly falls in love with a classmate who he knows he must abandon; a grandmother stitches together the hurts of her past when she connects with her granddaughter in the present; a young lesbian attempts to launch her sexuality with comically mixed results. In these stories and many more in this year’s volume, it’s easy to get lost in the yearning of characters who feel so heartbreakingly true and whose lives resonate with the weight of inevitability.   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