On a rain-drenched bridge in East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge, ready to disappear. But before he can jump, a voice calls to him—Grazina, an elderly widow slipping into the fog of dementia.
With nowhere else to go, Hai becomes her caretaker, forging an unlikely bond built on memory, loss, and the quiet mercies of human connection. As he navigates Grazina’s shifting world, he is forced to confront his own ghosts—of family, of love, of the life he thought was beyond his reach.
Sweeping yet intimate, The Emperor of Gladness is a luminous meditation on survival, chosen family, and the stories we tell ourselves to keep going.
What does it mean to be seen, to be saved, to start again? Ocean Vuong’s latest novel dares to ask.
