📕 The Emperor of Gladness
🖋 Ocean Vuong
📑 416 Pages
📆 2025
💡 Literary Fiction
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, first published in 2025, is a deeply moving novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive⁽¹⁾. Set in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, the novel follows Hai, a nineteen-year-old Vietnamese American who stands on the edge of a bridge, ready to jump, when he hears a voice calling out to him⁽¹⁾.
The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow suffering from dementia, who convinces Hai to take another path. With nowhere else to go, Hai becomes her caretaker, and over the course of a year, the two form a life-altering bond built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak⁽¹⁾. As Hai navigates his relationship with Grazina, he is forced to confront his past, his family, and a community on the brink of change⁽¹⁾.
🖋 Ocean Vuong
📑 416 Pages
📆 2025
💡 Literary Fiction
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, first published in 2025, is a deeply moving novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive⁽¹⁾. Set in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, the novel follows Hai, a nineteen-year-old Vietnamese American who stands on the edge of a bridge, ready to jump, when he hears a voice calling out to him⁽¹⁾.
The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow suffering from dementia, who convinces Hai to take another path. With nowhere else to go, Hai becomes her caretaker, and over the course of a year, the two form a life-altering bond built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak⁽¹⁾. As Hai navigates his relationship with Grazina, he is forced to confront his past, his family, and a community on the brink of change⁽¹⁾.