With its propulsive drive, vividly realized characters, and profound observations about soul and society, Pulitzer Prize-finalist Susan Choi's novel is as thrilling as it is lyrical, and confirms her place as one of the most important novelists chronicling the American experience. Intricately plotted and psychologically acute, A Person of Interest exposes the fault lines of paranoia and dread that have fractured American life and asks how far one man must go to escape his regrets. Professor Lee, an Asian-born mathematician near retirement age would seem the last person to attract the attention of FBI agents. Yet after a colleague becomes the latest victim of a serial bomber, Lee must endure the undermining power of suspicion and face the ghosts of his past.

Praise for A Person of Interest

"A tour de force . . . universal and raw and irresistibly sympathetic.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“With nuance, psychological acuity, and pitch-perfect writing, she tells the large-canvas story of paranoia in the age of terror and the smaller (but no less important) story of the cost of failed dreams and the damage we do to one another in the name of love.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Read A Person of Interest for one of the best reasons to read any fiction: to transcend the limitations of our own lives, to find out what it's like to be someone else, to recognize unmistakable aspects of ourselves staring back at us from the portrait of a stranger”
—Francine Prose, The New York Times Book Review

“A haunting meditation on the myriad forms of alienation . . . Choi's reflections from Lee's gruffly brittle point of view are as intricate and penetrating as the shifting intrigue surrounding the bomb.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred review)

“A staggering story of love betrayed…. Subtle humor, emotional acuity, and breathtaking plot twists keep this tale of wounding secrets rolling as Choi's brilliant calculus of revelation and forgiveness delivers a triumphant conclusion.” 
—Booklist (Starred review)

“Her characters are complex, fully realized beings with nuanced inner lives….There is lyricism on every page.” 
—Jessica Murphy, Poets & Writers

“Enthralling…Choi, with her almost surgically precise prose, establishes herself as a cultural provocateur a la DeLillo, but with a keen sense of psychological nuance.”
—Megan O’Grady, Vogue

“Eloquent, penetrating….Behind the headlines that trigger Choi's imagination, she sees intricate, difficult lives;  she sees romance and error and dignity and pain – and finally, as with Lee, she sees the possibility of redemption.”
—Vince Passaro, O, The Oprah Magazine

“Dazzling”
—The New Yorker

“Superbly told...profound”
—The Boston Globe

“Masterful...[Lee's] dilemma is Hitchcockian, and one of the remarkable things about this novel is how seamlessly Choi integrates suspense with resonant characterization and elegant prose....With its passages of melancholic introspection and long flashbacks, "A Person of Interest" certainly isn't a thriller, but since most contemporary literary fiction feels hopelessly static and ornamental by comparison, Choi seems to be working in a genre all her own: politically astute, historically based and dramatically propulsive.”
—Salon

“Incendiary...so smart”
—Fresh Air

“Stunning…succeeds on so many levels”
—Village Voice

“...imaginative and deeply humanistic in such textured ways that the flameout of a marriage or two or three, the ruptures between parents and children, the storms of self-regret over what is lost in life, are as concussive as anything else in its pages.”
—The Chicago Tribune

“Private lives wrenched by official scrutiny”
—Bloomberg

“If Henry James had lived in the age of pulp noirs, he might have wound up writing books a little like Susan Choi’s third novel, A Person of Interest.”
—Washington City Paper

“Psychologically rich”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Singular, nurturing power”
—The Chicago Sun Times

“Gorgeous”
—The Oregonian

“Highly nuanced and rhythmically seamless prose”
—The Texas Observer

“The best new novel I've read in 2008”
—The Plain Dealer

“A famous American crime”
—Daily Gazette

“Two-word review: gripping, smart”
—GQ Magazine

“Terrible honesty”
—Dallas Morning News

“An endearing tangle of a man”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Clear, compassionate”
—The Onion

“Mesmeric”
—V Magazine

“Never loses its way”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Crackles...”
—Time Out New York

“Engrossing...masterful”
—New York Sun