The Emperor of Gladness

College dropout Hai doesn’t know how to face the future until a chance meeting with elderly widow Grazina changes his life. ‘HEARTBREAKING’ Guardian ‘BEAUTIFUL’ Oprah Winfrey ‘DRAMATIC AND VIVID’ Colm Tóibín 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 his life-altering bond with Grazina transforms his relationship to the community, his family and, most powerfully of all, to himself. READERS LOVE THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS: ’Read it slowly. Let it wreck you. Then read it again’ ’I feel like I lost part of my soul to this book’ ’I would give it 6 stars if I could’ ’Sad and funny, devastating and quietly celebratory’ ’A masterwork of compassion and complexity’ ‘An ode to the little acts of kindness that help us heal’ Harper’s Bazaar ‘Beautiful writing’ Madonna ‘His most vivid, ambitious work yet’ Dazed ‘Incredible’ Björk ‘The first millennial Great American Novel’ ArtReviewAuthor: Vuong, Ocean,author
Contributors: Vuong, Ocean,author
Binding: paperback
Publication Date:
Release Date:
Languages: English,Published,English,Original Language,Englis
Published/Release Date: 28 May 2026
Bic Classification: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Fiction: special features
bicCode:
Format: Paperback / softback
Publisher/Studio/Brand: Vintage Publishing
Author/Director/Artist: Ocean Vuong
Dimension (cm): 197x129x28 mm
Package Dimension (cm): 31x213x195 mm
Item Weight (g): 292
Package Weight (g): 310