The Interpreter: A Novel

by David K. Shipler

THE INTERPRETER




Pulitzer prize-winning author David K. Shipler’s fictionalized story of a Vietnamese interpreter, based on his own experiences as a war correspondent, brings back the tensions within Vietnam during the war, focusing on a local with close ties to American journalists and politicians. 




The Interpreter is based on the true story of a Vietnamese translator who is wounded—not physically—by a love of country too pure for the contaminated choices that confront him. Dragged by an inner search, he has wandered among the neat categories of allegiance imposed by Vietnam’s lifetime of warfare and foreign occupation.


But he fits into none of the available boxes—not Communist, not Government, not pro-American, nor any of the assortment of political dissidents who populate the shadowy warrens of Saigon. He finds no home with either the tortured or the torturers. Instead, he tries to interpret Vietnam through an evolving comradeship with an American correspondent, to distant, weary audiences who barely listen anymore. He commits a futile betrayal against the correspondent’s wife. He harbors a secret. He clings to a simple nobility, he believes, as an authentic Vietnamese of transcendent patriotism, and so he keeps his footing in the whirlwind of panic as Saigon falls. By refusing an offer to escape with his family to the US, he consigns his future to an intricate, stumbling dance with the victorious Communist regime.

This man is fictionalized, but he is not alone in the world. His torment is a hidden story not only of Vietnam but of the hundreds like him who have interpreted their war-torn countries for the foreigners who fuel the fighting with weapons and blood.  

1 pages, Audio CD

Published May 6, 2025

About the author

David K. Shipler reported for The New York Times from 1966 to 1988 in New York, Saigon, Moscow, Jerusalem, and Washington. He is the author of four other books, including the best sellers Russia and The Working Poor, and Arab and Jew, which won the Pulitzer Prize. He has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and has taught at Princeton University, at American University in Washington, D.C., and at Dartmouth College.

Reviews

[Matthew Whittington · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Translator by David K. Shipler is a haunting account that cuts through the fog of war to paint an almost uncomfortably vivid picture. Shipler’s portrayal of Vietnam near the end of the conflict is a complicated place, capturing not just the physical devastation but the psychological unraveling of a country and the people caught between two worlds. The story is about a journalist from Boston that hires a Vietnamese translator who is determined to help shine light on the horrors behind VC lines. Battling with the harsh jungle, the complicated groups, and the many on either side trying to get him to sway minds with his translating ability. His prose doesn’t flinch as he only says things exactly how he hears them; it renders every detail with stark humanity, drawing readers into a landscape of fear, mistrust, and impossible choices. This isn’t just a story about war, it’s about the fragile act of understanding across language, culture, and trauma, and how a country is left to rebuild after americas departure. Unforgettable.

[Loree · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but sometimes it was hard to follow between the flashbacks and present. Might have been because of the way it downloaded on my Nook. I did learn quite a bit about Vietnam and what happened after the Americans left the war.