Description

• A Man of Two Faces is the first personal memoir from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and public intellectual. Although Nguyen has written personal essays before for major publications, this is the first time he is diving into much of his family’s story in a sustained, public-facing way, from their arrival in the United States in 1975 as refugees from Vietnam, up through Nguyen’s experiences as a father and as a son of aging parents.
• A Man of Two Facesincludes 14 family photos with family photos and plays with text and language in surprising and inventive ways. Nguyen’s models for the book include DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, and The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson.
• We expect major review coverage in print, radio, and TV, including feature/profile interest. In addition, we will plan select high-profile events.
• The Sympathizer is currently in development for television by A24, and the series will debut on HBO. Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) is signed up as the showrunner and director, and Nguyen is an executive producer. Robert Downey Jr. is producing and starring alongside Hoa Xuande, Sandra Oh, and many others. The Sympathizer has now sold over one million copies worldwide and won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as six other major awards. It was also named to more than forty best books of the year lists.
• Nguyen has already been highly acclaimed for his nonfiction work. Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War was a finalist for both the National Book Award in Nonfiction and the National Book Critic Circle Award. For the first time, in A Man of Two Faces, he turns his powerful lens of critique inwards to his own self and his family.
• Nguyen’s most recent novel, The Committed, was a New York Times bestseller and named a best book of the year by NPR, Time, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Slate, and others.
• Nguyen is one of the most prominent and respected contemporary writers in the United States. His profile is higher now than ever before, with over 24,000 followers on Instagram, and his major public profile will ensure huge attention for this book.
• Nguyen has been the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations and currently serves as university professor and Aerol Arnold Chair of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. His work has been translated into twenty-eight languages.