“The Sympathizer” offers fresh look at Vietnam War

Forty years ago marked the definitive end to the Vietnam War. The Americans evacuated and on April 30th, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese communist forces.  Viet Thanh Nguyen was four years old. His family escaped Saigon and came to the United States as refugees in 1975. Nguyen’s new novel, The Sympathizer, takes place just after the end of the war. Unlike almost all other American books or films about the war, The Sympathizer’s main characters are Vietnamese, offering a fresh look at a contentious history.