The instant New York Times bestseller • Oprah’s Book Club Pick • Ocean Vuong returns with a
bighearted novel about chosen family unexpected friendship and the stories we tell ourselves
in order to survive “Stunning . . . A heartfelt and powerful examination of those living on
the fringes of society and the unique challenges they face to survive and thrive.” —Oprah
Winfrey “Magnificent . . . In writing this book Vuong may have joined the ranks of an elite
few great novelists.” —Leigh Haber Los Angeles Times The hardest thing in the world is to
live only once … One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness
Connecticut nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain ready to
jump when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina an elderly
widow succumbing to dementia who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options
he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year the unlikely pair develops a
life-altering bond one built on empathy spiritual reckoning and heartbreak with the power
to transform Hai’s relationship to himself his family and a community on the brink.
Following the cycles of history memory and time The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound
ways in which love labor and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a
brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds
that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing—formal innovation syntactic
dexterity and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in
this story of loss hope and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting
mercies: a second chance.
