To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other

PRE-ORDER FOR APRIL 8, 2025

To Save and To Destroy: Writing as an Other – A Powerful Exploration of Identity, Literature, and Solidarity by Viet Thanh Nguyen

📚 From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, acclaimed for The Sympathizer (now an HBO series), comes To Save and To Destroy, a bold, deeply personal collection of essays that redefines what it means to be an outsider in literature—and in life.

A Groundbreaking Literary Meditation on Otherness

Born in war-torn Vietnam and raised in America as a refugee, Nguyen brings his own lived experience to bear in these six compelling essays—originally delivered as the Norton Lectures—which examine:

• The role of the outsider in literary tradition

• The influence of iconic authors like Melville, Fitzgerald, Ellison, and Kingston

• The personal toll of his mother’s mental illness

• The impact of imperialism, war, and racial violence on marginalized communities

Through a blend of literary criticism, political commentary, and personal reflection, Nguyen challenges conventional narratives about model minorities, identity politics, and artistic responsibility.

A Call for Radical Solidarity

With unflinching honesty, Nguyen asks:
🔹 What does it mean to write from the margins?
🔹 Should we amplify the voices of the voiceless—or confront the systems that silence them?
🔹 How do writers engage with trauma, memory, and justice in a world shaped by conflict?

🌏 To Save and To Destroy is both a profound literary manifesto and a powerful plea for cross-cultural empathy and radical political unity—urging readers to rethink who we write for, and who gets left behind.