Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like The Sympathizer
The best books like The Sympathizer are A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, The Things They Carried, and Dispatches. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen is about dual identity and divided loyalty, the vietnam war and its aftermath, colonialism and its legacies. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ishmael Beah · Memoir
Ishmael Beah was twelve years old when the Sierra Leone civil war reached his village and he was separated from his family.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Things They Carried
02
Tim O'Brien · Memoir
Tim O'Brien served as a foot soldier in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Dispatches
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Michael Herr · Memoir
Michael Herr went to Vietnam as a correspondent for Esquire in 1967 and spent eighteen months embedded with Marine and Army units before the experience broke him psychologically.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
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The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Maxine Hong Kingston · Memoir
The Woman Warrior is not a conventional memoir.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Exit West
05
Mohsin Hamid · Literary fiction
Exit West follows Saeed and Nadia, two young people who meet and fall in love in an unnamed city beginning to fracture under the pressure of civil conflict.
Both dig into political violence.
Read the summary → - One Hundred Years of Solitude
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Gabriel García Márquez · Literary fiction
One Hundred Years of Solitude chronicles the founding, flourishing, and eventual obliteration of Macondo, a fictional Colombian town, through six generations of the Buendía family.
Both dig into political violence.
Read the summary → - The Famished Road
07
Ben Okri · Literary fiction
The Famished Road is narrated by Azaro, a spirit child in West Africa.
Both dig into political violence.
Read the summary → - Under the Volcano
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Malcolm Lowry · Literary fiction
Malcolm Lowry's 1947 novel takes place on a single day — the Mexican Day of the Dead, November 2, 1938 — in the small town of Quauhnahuac (Cuernavaca) in the shadow of the Popocatépetl volcano.
Both dig into political violence.
Read the summary → - Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
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Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Patrick Radden Keefe · History
Say Nothing opens with a scene that sets its register precisely: Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten, is dragged from her Belfast flat by a gang of masked strangers in December 1972 and never seen alive again.
Both dig into political violence.
Read the summary → - The Anatomy of Fascism
- The Dogs of Riga
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Henning Mankell · Thriller
The Dogs of Riga is the second Kurt Wallander novel, published in 1992 and set partly in Sweden but primarily in Latvia at the moment the Soviet Union is collapsing.
Both dig into political violence.
Read the summary → - A Farewell to Arms
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Ernest Hemingway · Literary fiction
A Farewell to Arms is set during the First World War in northern Italy and follows Frederic Henry, an American serving as a lieutenant in the Italian ambulance corps, who falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary →
Books like The Sympathizer: quick answers
What are the best books like The Sympathizer?
The best books like The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen are A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Dispatches by Michael Herr, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Sympathizer, such as dual identity and divided loyalty, the vietnam war and its aftermath, colonialism and its legacies.
What should I read after The Sympathizer?
A natural next read after The Sympathizer is A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Dispatches by Michael Herr, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston.
What books are similar to The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen?
The Sympathizer centers on dual identity and divided loyalty, the vietnam war and its aftermath, colonialism and its legacies. Books with a similar feel include A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Dispatches by Michael Herr, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
