The Emperor of Gladness
$21.84
- Paperback
416 pages
- Release Date
2 June 2026
Summary
The instant Sunday Times bestseller, a vibrant and heartbreaking story of unexpected friendship and how far people go to find a second chance.
One late summer evening in the town of East Gladness, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow.
From this moment, his second chance begins. Over the course of the year, Hai’s story takes new and unexpected turns, as h…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781529945850 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1529945852 |
| Author: | Ocean Vuong |
| Publisher: | Vintage Publishing |
| Imprint: | Vintage |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 416 |
| Release Date: | 2 June 2026 |
| Weight: | 290g |
| Dimensions: | 197mm x 129mm x 28mm |
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Critics Review
A fine-grained social panorama driven by the developing camaraderie of an ensemble cast bonded in precariousness and pain * Observer *
Depicts the emotions of its protagonists with a sensitivity and lusciousness… contains moments of almost unbearable poignancy * Guardian *
Firmly grounded and perfectly tuned… With its poetic morsels, ambivalent love for the rural northeast, and many-layered immigrant stories, The Emperor of Gladness may well be the first millennial Great American Novel * ArtReview *
Heartbreaking, heartwarming yet unsentimental, and savagely comic all at the same time, The Emperor of Gladness is about just how wobbly things can become * Guardian *
Tender and moving, The Emperor of Gladness is about people on the margins of society and sanity. To my surprise and delight, Vuong’s novel is also wryly, subtly, wittily - and sometimes outrageously - a comedy as well as a tragedy – Rebecca Solnit
His most vivid, ambitious work yet * Dazed *
Remarkable… A sui generis take on the surprising and cruel ways violence is passed on across generations * Kirkus Starred Review *
[A] heartbreaking epic… Witten in Vuong’s inimitable prose…[it] will doubtless be counted among the great American novels * Bookseller *
A masterwork – Bryan Washington
This stunning book moved me so much, I fell in love with its characters and grieved their absence in my life when I turned the last page – Caitríona Balfe
About The Author
Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother, as well as the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ and the American Book Award, he was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and currently splits his time between western Massachusetts and New York City.
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