The instant New York Times bestseller • Oprah’s Book Club Pick • Named a Best Book of 2025 by
TIME The New Yorker Harper's Bazaar USA Today NPR People Christian Science Monitor
Scientific American and Kirkus Reviews • A 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence finalist
“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 Ocean Vuong returns
with a bighearted novel about chosen family unexpected friendship and the stories we tell
ourselves in order to survive 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.
