Books: Viet Thanh Nguyen writes from the in-between

The prolific author Viet Thanh Nguyen won a Pulitzer Prize in the U.S. for his first novel, "The Sympathizer," and may be the world's best-known Vietnamese author. Yet he is all but unread in Vietnam, his native land, which he has not visited for a decade.

This year will add two more publications to his list of achievements. "To Save and Destroy: Writing as Other," is made up of six wide-ranging talks given in the 2023-24 Norton Lectures -- the first ever given by an ethnic Asian in the 100-year history of the prestigious Harvard University series.