{"product_id":"the-committed-9781472152503","title":"The Committed","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Call \u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e many things. A white hot literary thriller disguised as a searing novel of ideas. An unflinching look at redemption and damnation. An unblinking examination of the dangers of belief, and the need to believe. A sequel that goes toe to toe with the original then surpasses it. A masterwork'' Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning author of\u003ci\u003e A Brief History of Seven Killings\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe long-awaited new novel from one of America''s most highly regarded contemporary writers, \u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e follows the Sympathizer as he arrives in Paris as a refugee. There he and his blood brother Bon try to escape their pasts and prepare for their futures by turning their hands to capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing. No longer in physical danger, but still inwardly tortured by his reeducation at the hands of his former best friend, and struggling to assimilate into a dominant culture, the Sympathizer is both charmed and disturbed by Paris. As he f\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCall \u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e many things. A white hot literary thriller disguised as a searing novel of ideas. An unflinching look at redemption and damnation. An unblinking examination of the dangers of belief, and the need to believe. \u003cb\u003eA sequel that goes toe to toe with the original then surpasses it. A masterwork.\u003c\/b\u003e * Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings *\u003cbr\u003eThis follow-up to his seminal \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003eNguyen at his most ambitious and bold\u003c\/b\u003e. Fierce in tone, capacious, witty, sharp, and deeply researched, \u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e marks, not just a sequel to its groundbreaking predecessor, but a sum total accumulation of a life devoted to Vietnamese American history and scholarship. This novel, like all daring novels, is a Trojan Horse, whose hidden power is a treatise of global futurity in the aftermath of colonial conquest. It asks questions central both to Vietnamese everywhere - and to our very species: How do we live in the wake of seismic loss and betrayal? And, perhaps even more critically, How do we laugh? * Ocean Vuong, New York Times-bestselling author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous *\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003ebrilliant rollercoaster\u003c\/b\u003e of ideas and action. * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn elegy to idealism, Orientalism, and existentialism in all its tragic forms,\u003c\/b\u003e Nguyen's novel doesn't so much inhabit early eighties Paris, as it pulls the plug on the City of Light. Think of \u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e as the declaration of the 20th ½ Arrondissement. A squatter's paradise for those with one foot in the grave and the other shoved halfway up Western civilization's ass. * Paul Beatty, author of the Man Booker prize-winning The Sellout *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e, Viet Thanh Nguyen's \u003cb\u003efurious and exhilarating sequel \u003c\/b\u003eto \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e, is part gangster-thriller, part searing cultural analysis of the post-colonial predicament, seen through the eyes of a Vietnamese-French mixed race bastard double agent. Paris of forty years ago swirls to life around him, from intellectual salons to filthy toilets-with glimpses of everyone from Johnny Hallyday to Frantz Fanon to Julia Kristeva. \u003cb\u003eLike Ellison's \u003ci\u003eInvisible Man\u003c\/i\u003e, these novels will surely become classics.\u003c\/b\u003e * Claire Messud, author of The Emperor's Children *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003enothing short of revelatory\u003c\/b\u003e . . . This book is fierce, and unrelentingly good. Hilarious and subversive, philosophical and hallucinatory, it is much more than a sequel, more like a necessary appendage in a \u003cb\u003ebrilliant and expansive\u003c\/b\u003e anti-colonial body of work. Bravo. * Tommy Orange, New York Times-bestselling author of There There *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea rich and exhilarating story \u003c\/b\u003eof friendship, loyalty, and greed. Set in 1980s Paris, it follows the characters from \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e as they try to fashion new lives among all the wretched of the earth. Viet Thanh Nguyen gives us \u003cb\u003ean unsparing look at the poisonous effects of ideology - \u003c\/b\u003ewhether colonialism, communism, or capitalism - even as he explores the deep-seated need we all have to believe in something. A \u003cb\u003edeep, compelling and humorous portrait\u003c\/b\u003e of how we are shaped by fictions others have for us. * Laila Lalami, author of The Other Americans, finalist for the National Book Award *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea wonderful successor \u003c\/b\u003eto \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003cb\u003ea splendid tapestry of a novel\u003c\/b\u003e, full of dubious but richly realized characters. It solidifies what we already know - \u003cb\u003eViet Thanh Nguyen is a gifted storyteller\u003c\/b\u003e. It is difficult to know where to start with the praise. The characters have a sad and often tragic complexity, and the language offers a terrific ride for the reader. This is a grand novel full of breathtaking and luminous insights and a pure joy to read. \u003cb\u003eAnticipation is why we come to a book, and joy is why we keep turning page after page. \u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e offers both, and so very much more.\u003c\/b\u003e * Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Known World *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDelightfully sardonic humour\u003c\/b\u003e . . . These are lectures that make you engage. * Francesca Angelini, the Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eIf \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e was ostensibly a spy novel, then \u003ci\u003eThe Committed \u003c\/i\u003eis a gangland thriller . . . \u003cb\u003eTwo contemporary classics for your bedside table.\u003c\/b\u003e * The Telegraph, five stars *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHere it is, with perfect timing, a novel that anyone who is part of a colonising or colonised nation - and that includes, of course, America - should read\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Nguyen is a craftsman . . . And then there's the sharp humour . . . In \u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e, a political novel comes in the guise of a thriller . . . \u003cb\u003eLike \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e, it amounts to much more than the sum of its parts.\u003c\/b\u003e These two novels constitute a powerful challenge to an enduring narrative of colonialism and neo-colonialism. One waits to see what Nguyen, and the man of two faces, will do next. * the Guardian, Aminatta Forna *\u003cbr\u003eIts rawness and ideated rage make it \u003cb\u003eeasy to admire and perfect to study\u003c\/b\u003e * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJust as \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e transformed the hulk of an old spy novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Committed\u003c\/i\u003e does the same with a tale of crime noir.\u003c\/b\u003e * The Independent *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA brilliant rollercoaster of ideas and action.\u003c\/b\u003e * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003ehigh-stakes\u003c\/b\u003e crime thriller . . . A \u003cb\u003ethrilling alternative\u003c\/b\u003e to the Western narrative. * The i *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Little, Brown Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48739403268439,"sku":"9781472152503","price":17.09,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781472152503.jpg?v=1720052142","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-committed-9781472152503","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}