Viet Thanh Nguyen

And the rest is history.

But

We have a shared conviction for so many things, shared passion for so many things, including the truth of language and the truth of art.

So she's always been my first reader, which is a terrible job to have because first drafts are terrible, and she read them for 20 years, and so she knows how bad of a writer I can be.

And so with The Sympathizer or with other works that she's read where she thinks I've done something good –

you know, she'll tell me so.

And I trust her that she'll tell me the truth, that I'm writing to the best of my ability, to the most honest, I'm being the most honest I can be about my own emotions, about my view of the world, and honest about my art.

She thinks A Man of Two Faces is my best book, as a matter of fact.

So I take her at her word for that.

But likewise, you know, I support her in her work as a poet and scholar as well.

And so we have a partnership, and that's a beautiful thing to have.

Do you agree with her on what is your best work?

Oh, I'm too close to the work to know.

A Man of Two Faces is pretty good though.

You know, people keep forgetting there's a sequel called The Committed.

And I run across readers, you know, several in the past few weeks who've said The Committed is a better novel than The Sympathizer.

The Sympathizer is probably more of a crowd pleaser because it speaks about the Vietnam War.

And again,

Vietnam War, everybody thinks they know what that's about, so it's a hook, right?

But it is.