The Emperor of Gladness

Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive 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,

Product details

• Authors: Ocean Vuong, Vuong Ocean
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Release: 05.05.2026
• EAN: 9798217062713
• ISBN: 9798217062713
• No. of pages: 416
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 210 mm x 21 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), FICTION / Literary, Of specific Gay & Lesbian interest, Relating to Asian American people, FICTION / LGBTQ+ / General, FICTION / Asian American & Pacific Islander, Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Relating to LGBTQIA+ people