{"product_id":"the-emperor-of-gladness-a-novel-ocean-vuong-1","title":"The Emperor of Gladness: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOcean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne 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 alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFollowing the cycles of history, memory, and time, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Emperor of Gladness\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003eshows the profound ways in which love, labor, and 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 Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting a second chance.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e--\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOcean Vuong\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of the debut novel, \u003cem\u003eOn Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous\u003c\/em\u003e, out from Penguin Press (2019). He is also the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection, \u003cem\u003eNight Sky with Exit Wounds\u003c\/em\u003e, a \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e Top 10 Book of 2016, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. A Ruth Lilly fellow from the Poetry Foundation, his honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, and the Pushcart Prize.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ocean Vuong","offers":[{"title":"New - Paperback","offer_id":51971278111037,"sku":null,"price":28.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0709\/0831\/3917\/files\/81FPwohIH9L._SL1500.jpg?v=1783973065","url":"https:\/\/thebookarchive.ca\/products\/the-emperor-of-gladness-a-novel-ocean-vuong-1","provider":"The Book Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}