Picked by The Sympathizer fans

Here are 42 books that The Sympathizer fans have personally recommended once you finish the The Sympathizer series. Book DNA is a community of authors and super-readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Book cover of The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam

Hue-Tam Ho Tai Author Of Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution

From my list on books for someone who grew up in wartime Vietnam in a family of anti-colonial activists.

Why am I passionate about this?

My interests lie in the personal experiences of war and revolution and their aftermaths. Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution is a tribute to my parents' generation of young Vietnamese who sought to combine their attempts to free themselves of the shackles of oppressive tradition with the struggle to win independence from French colonial rule before the introduction of competing ideologies.

Hue-Tam's book list on books for someone who grew up in wartime Vietnam in a family of anti-colonial activists

Hue-Tam Ho Tai Why Hue-Tam loves this book

The original Vietnamese title of this novel was The Fate of Love. The hero is a veteran of the North Vietnamese Army who fought in The War Against the Americans to Save the Nation. He suffers from PTSD and mourns the loss of his fiancee. The novel proceeds as a series of discontinuous episodes as the hero relives traumatic memories.

By Bảo Ninh ,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked The Sorrow of War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the semi-autobiographical account of a soldier's experiences. The hero of the story, Kien, is a captain. After 10 years of war and months as a MIA body-collector, Kien suffers a nervous breakdown in Hanoi as he tries to re-establish a relationship with his former sweetheart.


Book cover of The Poison Flood

Devin Murphy Author Of The Boat Runner

From my list on books with super shady characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a total sucker for people who are so complicated I can’t get a read on them. This love comes from growing up without any extended family. When I heard little bits of my parents’ pasts, it felt like the world got more interesting, and I wanted to dig in to know everything there was to know about what shaped them and, by proxy, what shaped me. I’m drawn to shady characters who don’t want to give up the goods, as they present a joyful challenge by withholding mystery, and those types of characters are the ones I love to read and write about.

Devin's book list on books with super shady characters

Devin Murphy Why Devin loves this book

I’ve never come across a character who knows how to rock, as well as Hollis Bragg! He is so creative and self-destructive as he wails on his guitar it felt like there was nothing to do but let the fierceness of his emotions wash over me.

From the first page, Hollis is a wildly manic and interesting tour guide through rural West Virginia on the eve of great changes. Everyone here has a motive, and there is no real trust in what that motive will drive them to do. They are each self-serving and captivating. 

By Jordan Farmer ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Poison Flood as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A near-Shakespearean snarl, a mad, seven-day action crucible set in the West Virginia wild...The Poison Flood is an ambitious saga, cockamamie and passionate. Through Hollis, Farmer produces a pocket Hillbilly manifesto."--Atlanta Journal Constitution

A captivating, gritty, and tender story of a reclusive musician and the local disaster that threatens his small town and changes his life forever.

Hollis Bragg lives on the fringes. The hunchbacked son of a West Virginia hill preacher, he now resides in rural isolation next to the burned-out husk of his father's church, and earns his living ghostwriting songs for a popular band that left the…


Book cover of In Our Other Lives

Devin Murphy Author Of The Boat Runner

From my list on books with super shady characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a total sucker for people who are so complicated I can’t get a read on them. This love comes from growing up without any extended family. When I heard little bits of my parents’ pasts, it felt like the world got more interesting, and I wanted to dig in to know everything there was to know about what shaped them and, by proxy, what shaped me. I’m drawn to shady characters who don’t want to give up the goods, as they present a joyful challenge by withholding mystery, and those types of characters are the ones I love to read and write about.

Devin's book list on books with super shady characters

Devin Murphy Why Devin loves this book

This book is so sprawling and insightful that it gave me a touch of delightful paranoia. It captured the era of the newly approved Patriot Act.

The story’s character’s think they are acting as solo agents but everything they do is now being scrutinized. This gave me a chance to see their real time and inner struggles as they wrestle with how to create both public and private lives. I was ready to wrap tinfoil over my head after finishing this one!

By Theodore Wheeler ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked In Our Other Lives as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A provocative novel about abandoned faith, heartbreaking loss, and inescapable government scrutiny in the heartland of a post-9/11 nation.

American missionary and ROTC cadet Tyler Ahls, long missing in Pakistan, has just surfaced, proselytizing in an Afghani terrorist propaganda video. For Omaha nurse Elisabeth Holland, it's a shock that her brother is even alive. Now she must ask herself a more grave question: Is he a hostage or a traitor?

Seasoned FBI special agent Frank Schwaller is asking this too. He's come to Nebraska armed with countless hours of video, audio, and email surveillance. The object of his unyielding gaze…


Book cover of Amerikaland

Devin Murphy Author Of The Boat Runner

From my list on books with super shady characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a total sucker for people who are so complicated I can’t get a read on them. This love comes from growing up without any extended family. When I heard little bits of my parents’ pasts, it felt like the world got more interesting, and I wanted to dig in to know everything there was to know about what shaped them and, by proxy, what shaped me. I’m drawn to shady characters who don’t want to give up the goods, as they present a joyful challenge by withholding mystery, and those types of characters are the ones I love to read and write about.

Devin's book list on books with super shady characters

Devin Murphy Why Devin loves this book

This book stunned me by becoming something different over and over again.

The characters in Amerikaland are upright role models, but then we dip into their super complicated pasts. When their family pops up, the story begins to weave itself into a wild plot that requires unbelievable fortitude to endure. As the pages kept coming, I no longer had any idea what was going to happen next and felt like anything could happen. These people were driven by inner fires that could burn up the world at any moment.

I had to lay on the couch after this one as I felt completely gutted, but while lying down, I picked it up again and started rereading.

By Danny Goodman ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Amerikaland as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a reimagined present day, Sabine, a guarded, independent German tennis player, and Sandy, a Brooklyn-born Jewish baseball player, find themselves in New York City for World Day-a sporting event meant to celebrate international peace.


For years, Sabine was regarded as a tennis legend until an act of violence threatened her life and career. Now, she is determined to stand before the crowds once again a winner. Sandy is the beloved star of his hometown team, but a recent horrific antisemitic crime nearly unravels him.


Their lives are forever changed when a massive terrorist attack strikes World Day. As Sabine…


Book cover of Pickard County Atlas

Devin Murphy Author Of The Boat Runner

From my list on books with super shady characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a total sucker for people who are so complicated I can’t get a read on them. This love comes from growing up without any extended family. When I heard little bits of my parents’ pasts, it felt like the world got more interesting, and I wanted to dig in to know everything there was to know about what shaped them and, by proxy, what shaped me. I’m drawn to shady characters who don’t want to give up the goods, as they present a joyful challenge by withholding mystery, and those types of characters are the ones I love to read and write about.

Devin's book list on books with super shady characters

Devin Murphy Why Devin loves this book

I devoured this novel in one sitting. It has tons of dark stories that weave the families of unforgettable characters trying to hold their lives intact in Nebraska’s Sandhills.

I loved each interaction between Harley and the youngest Reddick boy, who is steeped in such a history of menace and projecting trouble that the mere mention of him made me nervous. As he and Harley spiral closer together it just feels like it is going to lead to an unforgettable collision. 

By Chris Harding Thornton ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Pickard County Atlas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a dusty town in Nebraska's rugged sandhills, weary sheriff's deputy Harley Jensen patrols the streets at night, on the lookout for something-anything-out of the ordinary. It's July 1978, and the heat is making people ornery, restless. That and the Reddick family patriarch has decided, decades after authorities ended the search for his murdered boy's body, to lay a headstone. Instead of bringing closure, this decision is the spark that threatens to set Pickard County ablaze.

On a fateful night after the memorial service, Harley tails the youngest Reddick and town miscreant, Paul, through the abandoned farms and homes outside…


Book cover of An Officer and a Spy

Michael J Goodspeed Author Of Dead Spy, Cold Grave

From my list on spy novels from someone who has been addicted to them since childhood.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Canadian novelist and historian who became addicted to spy novels in my early teens. I first read John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle when I should have been studying for my Grade 10 Math exams. Since then, I’ve read everything in the genre that I could get my hands on. As an army officer, I’ve always had a strong interest in security matters. On top of this, military service gave me opportunities for travel as well as meeting and working closely with a diverse range of people, all of which have stoked my interest in the world’s second-oldest profession.

Michael's book list on spy novels from someone who has been addicted to them since childhood

Michael J Goodspeed Why Michael loves this book

With so many truly excellent novels to choose from Harris’ An Officer and A Spy makes my list largely because Harris skillfully recreates an historical period and weaves a captivating story by mixing historical fact with a compelling set of interpreted characters. In doing so, using the Dreyfus Affair, he provides us with a disturbing view of a notorious lapse in democratic justice and the moral perils of rushing to judgment.

Harris’ protagonist is Georges Picquart, head of the "Statistical Section" in French military intelligence. For me, Picquart is one of those rare, complex individuals. He is a little stodgy but principled and willing to risk his career and reputation in pursuit of justice.

Taking a leaf from Forsyth, the outcome of An Officer and A Spy is well known, but it’s one of the novel’s numerous strengths as it provides a brilliant depiction of the seamier side of France’s…

By Robert Harris ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked An Officer and a Spy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

National Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year 2013

They lied to protect their country. He told the truth to save it. A gripping historical thriller from the bestselling author of FATHERLAND.

January 1895. On a freezing morning in the heart of Paris, an army officer, Georges Picquart, witnesses a convicted spy, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, being publicly humiliated in front of twenty thousand spectators baying 'Death to the Jew!'

The officer is rewarded with promotion: Picquart is made the French army's youngest colonel and put in command of 'the Statistical Section' - the shadowy intelligence unit that tracked down…


Book cover of Being There

Daniel Damiano Author Of Graphic Nature

From my list on exploring solitary characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

As both a playwright and novelist, I tend to gravitate to complex characters with an internal struggle. Graphic Nature, my second novel, touches upon a particular character, Edmond de Capitoir, who while considering himself a well-meaning member of society, has kept himself at arm’s length from life in many ways – not the least of which is due to his commitment to his profession as an executioner in 1913 France. Much of the work I've recommended touches upon these similar protagonists who are somehow emotionally closed off and perhaps have developed a certain guilt about their actions by what they experience through the course of these stories – even a need for love.

Daniel's book list on exploring solitary characters

Daniel Damiano Why Daniel loves this book

Chance is an illiterate gardener with childlike social limitations who, nevertheless, through being forced to move from the residence he has known for much of his adult life, is let out into the world and, thus, stumbles into the life of a respected political advisor (Rand).

As a result of this association, his scant vocabulary and phrasing eventually becomes mistaken for wisdom – and soon he becomes somewhat of a media phenomenon, despite his mental limitations rendering him incapable of any real awareness of being so.  A truly inspiring idea, depicting in a unique and humorous way how celebrity can so often be created by happenstance, and what the results of it can be.

By Jerzy Kosinski ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Being There as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The hero of this astonishing novel is called Chance - he may be the man of tomorrow. Flung into the real world when his rich benefactor dies, Chance is helped on his life journey by Elizabeth Eve, the young, beautiful, resourceful wife of a dying Wall Street mogul. Accidentally launched into a world of sex, money, power - and national television - he becomes a media superstar, a household name, the man of the hour - and, who knows, perhaps the next President of the United States of America.


Book cover of The Tears of Autumn

Michael J Goodspeed Author Of Dead Spy, Cold Grave

From my list on spy novels from someone who has been addicted to them since childhood.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Canadian novelist and historian who became addicted to spy novels in my early teens. I first read John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle when I should have been studying for my Grade 10 Math exams. Since then, I’ve read everything in the genre that I could get my hands on. As an army officer, I’ve always had a strong interest in security matters. On top of this, military service gave me opportunities for travel as well as meeting and working closely with a diverse range of people, all of which have stoked my interest in the world’s second-oldest profession.

Michael's book list on spy novels from someone who has been addicted to them since childhood

Michael J Goodspeed Why Michael loves this book

McCarry has never had the wide acclaim that my first two picks have had, and that’s a shame.

The Tears of Autumn is set in late 1963. Kennedy has been assassinated, and Vietnam has come to a fast boil. McCarry’s protagonist, Paul Christopher, an introspective poet and burned-out spy, takes it upon himself to find out the truth behind the rumor that the Vietnamese were behind Kennedy’s killing.

It’s a novel that spans continents and provides professional insight into the motivation and temperament of the spy world. Like Le Carré, McCarry’s style is sparse, lean, and enthralling. In a world beset by conspiracy theories, disinformation, and fake news, The Tears of Autumn is superb.

By Charles McCarry ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Tears of Autumn as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A re-release of the best-selling thriller originally published twenty years ago finds influential secret agent Paul Christopher pursuing a dangerous theory about the assassination of JFK, an investigation that threatens American foreign policy. By the author of Old Boys. 20,000 first printing.


Book cover of We Kissed the Ground

Jonny Steinberg Author Of A Man of Good Hope

From my list on exile, refugees and people on the move.

Why am I passionate about this?

In 2010, I met a Somali refugee in Cape Town. His name was Asad Abdullahi. He told the tale of his life with a richness bordering on genius and I was hooked. I spent the next two years tracing his childhood footsteps through the Horn of Africa, looking for anyone and everyone he had encountered. In the course of writing a book about him, I read countless other books about exile, migration, and human beings on the move. My five recommendations are among the books that helped me imagine the experience of exile best. 

Jonny's book list on exile, refugees and people on the move

Jonny Steinberg Why Jonny loves this book

Geeldoon is a Somali refugee who told the story of his extraordinary odyssey to Europe to an oral historian. It is a tale rendered without artifice, without an eye for style or craft. The sheer calamity of his experience spills from his mouth. You can tell from the tone of the narrative how urgent, how necessary it was for him to bear witness to his journey, perhaps if only to prove to himself that it really happened.

By Mohamed Hussein Geeldoon ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked We Kissed the Ground as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 2015, an estimated 154,000 migrants entered Europe via the Mediterranean from Libya—an increase of more than 1,000 per cent from 2012, while Somalis, most of them young men, were among the top five nationalities crossing the Mediterranean during the first six months of 2015. Although much has been written about the rise in migration to Europe and migrant deaths at sea, little is written about the journey migrants take prior to attempting the crossing. We Kissed the Ground is a first-hand account of a young man’s attempt to migrate to Europe from Somaliland and the hardships of the journey…