Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Race and Resistance | 2002 | Viet Thanh Nguyen | Buy |
| 2 | Nothing Ever Dies | 2016 | Viet Thanh Nguyen | Buy |
| 3 | A Man of Two Faces | 2023 | Viet Thanh Nguyen | Buy |
| 4 | To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other | 2025 | Viet Thanh Nguyen | Buy |
Nguyen’s non-fiction career runs alongside his fiction, and the two inform each other constantly. Race and Resistance (2002) was his academic debut, a scholarly study of Asian-American literature. Nothing Ever Dies (2016) is more accessible, examining how different nations and peoples remember the Vietnam War and who gets left out of that memory.
A Man of Two Faces (2023) marks a personal turn, a memoir about growing up as a Vietnamese refugee in America that weaves together family history, cultural criticism, and reflection on his career as a writer. To Save and to Destroy (2025) continues his engagement with questions of power and representation. Taken together, the four books form a sustained argument about whose stories get told and how.