Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As Ramsay tells his story, it begins to seem that from boyhood, he has exerted a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious, influence on those around him. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy in the end prove neither innocent nor innocuous.
Fifth Business stands alone as a remarkable story told by a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real.
The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.
It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong.
The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story.
As a Red, Darrow grew up working the mines deep beneath the surface of Mars, enduring backbreaking labor while dreaming of the better future he was building for his descendants. The Society he faithfully served was built on lies. Betrayed and denied by their elitist masters, the Golds, the only path to liberation for Darrow's kind is revolution.
To honor the greater good for which Eo, his true love and inspiration, laid down her own life, Darrow sacrifices himself. He becomes a Gold, infiltrating their privileged realm to destroy it from within. As a lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind's destiny, Darrow confronts treachery, overcomes his desire for retribution, and strives for a hopeful rebirth rather than violent revolt.
The road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, but Darrow must follow Eo's principles of love and justice to free his people. He must live for more.