Summary

"The Sympathizer," by Viet Thanh Nguyen, is the story of an unnamed Communist spy who flees to the United States after the fall of Saigon with the General he has been assigned to spy on. While in the U.S., the protagonist struggles with the question of where his allegiance truly lies as he is forced to confront the duality of his own nature as a half-European, half-Vietnamese man stuck between two worlds.

In Chapter 1, the narrator, an unnamed spy, begins writing his confession to the Commandant. He is in an isolation cell and begins his story at the point when he is still in Vietnam spying on the General and living at the General's villa. He acts as the General's aide and spends nearly every waking hour with the General, his wife, and the four children who remain at home. One of...