“I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces”, begins Viet Thanh Nguyen’s debut novel, The Sympathizer, the internationally acclaimed bestseller that was recently adapted into an HBO series starring Sandra Oh and Robert Downey Jr.

This duality is also at the heart of Viet’s highly original memoir, A Man of Two Faces, which details with sardonic wit and incisive analysis the double consciousness of a Vietnamese refugee growing up in North America.

Listen to the celebrated author, hailed as “a conscience of American literature” (The New Yorker), in conversation with Benjamin Law.

This episode was recorded live at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.  

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