The Emperor of Gladness

“The Emperor of Gladness is a poetic,dramatic and vivid story. Epic in its sweepthe novel also handles intimacy and love with delicacy and deep originality. Hai and Grazina are taken from the margins of American life by Ocean Vuong andby dint of great sympathy and imaginative geniusplaced at the very center of our world.” —Colm Tóibínauthor of Long Island and Brooklyn “A masterwork.” —Bryan Washingtonauthor of Palaver and Family Meal Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen familyunexpected friendshipand the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East GladnessConnecticutnineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rainready to jumpwhen he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazinaan elderly widow succumbing to dementiawho convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of optionshe quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the yearthe unlikely pair develops a life-altering bondone built on empathyspiritual reckoningand heartbreakwith the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himselfhis familyand a community on the brink. Following the cycles of historymemoryand timeThe Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which lovelaborand 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 innovationsyntactic dexterityand the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of losshopeand how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.