The Emperor of Gladness: Oprah’s Book Club: A Novel
The instant New York Times bestseller • Oprah’s Book Club Pick • Named a Best Book of 2025 by TIME, The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, USA Today, NPR, People, Christian Science Monitor, Scientific American, and Kirkus Reviews • A 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence finalist
“Stunning . . . A heartfelt and powerful examination of those living on the fringes of society, and the unique challenges they face to survive and thrive.” —Oprah Winfrey
Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive
The hardest thing in the world is to live only once…
One 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 transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink.
Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows 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 Ocean 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 mercies: a second chance.
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4.0 out of 5 stars 8,249
4.3 out of 5 stars 22,869
4.4 out of 5 stars 948
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INR 1,014.70INR1,014.70 INR 935.99INR935.99
Read more from Ocean Vuong
A bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive Ocean Vuong’s debut novel about the power of telling one’s story and the obliterating silence of not being heard. Written as a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before the son was born In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of personal and social loss, embodying the paradox of sitting in grief while being determined to survive beyond it
ASIN : B0DJCVJXXQ
Publisher : Penguin Press
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : May 13, 2025
Language : English
File size : 5.2 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 409 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-0593831885
Page Flip : Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #4,650 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #1 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction (Books) #3 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction (Kindle Store) #4 in Asian American & Pacific Islander Literature (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars (8,249) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
$1,404.46
Jay A. Nesbit –
A Tender, Unflinching Look at Depression and the Human Need to Be Seen
I picked up The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong because, as a community pharmacist who works closely with behavioral health patients, I’m always trying to better understand what depression feels like from the inside. Clinical definitions are useful. Medication profiles matter. But neither replaces lived experience. This novel offers that.Vuong writes with a poet’s precision. The language is lyrical without feeling forced. At times, the sentences slow you down. That felt appropriate. Depression slows everything down. Even time.What struck me most was how honestly the book captures the quiet weight of despair. Not dramatic breakdowns. Not stereotypes. Just the steady, often invisible heaviness that many people carry while still going to work, speaking politely, and trying to function. As someone who counsels patients about antidepressants, adherence, and side effects, I found myself thinking about the many conversations that happen across a pharmacy counter. This story helped me imagine more fully what might be happening beneath the surface.The novel also explores loneliness, identity, family bonds, and the longing to be understood. Depression here is not just a diagnosis. It’s intertwined with history, memory, culture, and the search for meaning. That complexity rang true to me. In practice, no one’s struggle exists in isolation from the rest of their life.This is not a fast, plot-driven book. It’s reflective. At times, it’s heavy. Readers looking for a tidy resolution may not find one. But those willing to sit with difficult emotions will find something valuable.For healthcare professionals, especially those working in behavioral health, I believe this novel can deepen empathy. It reminded me that while medications can ease symptoms, what many patients crave just as much is to feel seen without judgment.A thoughtful, compassionate, and quietly powerful read.
Elaine G. Clements –
Beautiful, strange and disturbing.
Well, this was a tough one; it took me about two weeks to read its 400 pages so, clearly, the story didn’t propel me forward. In fact, I avoided it, even dreaded it but kept at it. I hit a turning point (or the novel did) about 200 pages into it. The whole thing was grim but beautiful, poetic and horrible all at once. My change of heart about abandoning it 200 pages in may have happened because I was told it was semi-autobiographical. That made it seem honest rather than prurient, I suppose, and I could then read the drug use, the mental illness and the dementia without cringing from it. The least I could do was honor that experience, I suppose was my thinking. The end was touching and tender but strange-
D. Spencer –
Not resonating with me
I’m half way through this book- it is pretty easy to read- it started off strong, but as I continue the storyline just isn’t calling me. I’m having a hard time looking forward to picking it up again and find myself skimming through sections where the dialogue seems unnecessary or longer than needed. Haven’t decided yet if I’ll try to finish it.
Walter Desmond –
“My ghost is in pieces:” another masterpiece by Ocean Vuong
When Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was published, the book club group I was facilitating at the time wondered if the author would be able to make the transition from poet to full-fledged novelist—because the first novel flew primarily on the wings of poetry.His second novel—The Emperor of Gladness— does seem to lack the poetry of his first book. Nevertheless, it is poignant and powerful—and it is at its very best when the author explores the profound and touching relationship between the central protagonist Hai and the demented old woman Grazina. Grazina is, in fact, the glue that holds this book together. And yet, the novel’s other characters who live in the fast-food world of Home Market, are just as significant in their own way and connect powerfully to the mood, tone and themes of the author’s book.The novel does seem pretty dismal, and I was reminded again and again of its epigraph from Act 4, scene 3 of Hamlet: the true emperor of the world is the worm. “We fat ourselves for maggots.”So, the world is a wasteland of sorts in which, in the end, the American Dream ends most logically in a nursing home or in a dumpster where we sit contemplating stars in the night sky that we can neither reach nor comprehend. Where is the beauty in our lives? “What good is beauty if nobody wins?” The lies we tell ourselves and one another. The delusions we use to cope with trauma, with the brutality of war and the senseless slaughter of humans and animals. The numbing realities of our existences. It is all pretty grim.But the writing is breathtaking, and many of the scenes in this novel are unforgettable and brilliant, including a pill-popping Hai (as “Sgt. Pepper”) sitting in a bathtub with the demented Grazina as they take a midnight ride in a “jeep” that sweeps them across war-torn Europe on their way to the battlefields of Gettysburg. And the final section of the novel (Spring) is so powerfully imagined and rendered that the last pages of the book might leave you in tears.What are we? Who are we supposed to be? Do we ever rise above the level of our own mediocrity? What happens now? The Emperor of Gladness provides much food for thought, and I can only continue to admire its sensitive and intuitive author who is so very young and yet writes with such compassion and wisdom.
Gustavo –
Buen libro para pasar los ratos. Buena historia.
Amazon customer –
Genius. I think this is a truly great novel, holding up a mirror to the times, and the other books must certainly be good because it’s tempting to think the Booker judges are insane for not at least linglisting it. I was surprised by the contents of the book because I only knew Ocean Vuong as a poet, and his poems, the ones I’ve read aren’t particularly political or humorous. I do have a copy of On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous which I bought in hardback for the title and the cover, then still haven’t got round to reading it, but I will soon. His new one has everything: beautiful poetic descriptions, subtle philosophy, politics except he never preaches, it’s allwoven into the characters and the narrative. War/conflict across the ages is a theme and the feeling it we are still at war, there’s the war on drugs say. He addresses addiction, not least our addiction to fast food. Oprah has chosen it as a pick, is very impressed, and it’s worth watching her interview with Ocean on YouTube. On another one he mentions he loves the novel Kes and you can kind of feel it at the end, though the novel is very much itself, the resolution is similar to in kes. Similar to kes I’d say it’s a classic. I’ll be recommending this to everyone.
Gracie –
This is my second book by Ocean Vuong, and once again, he didn’t miss. The Emperor of Gladness kept me entertained from start to finish beautiful, aching, and weird in all the right ways. That said, if I were to compare it directly to On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, I’d be doing this book an injustice. They’re different creatures entirely.I loved the strange, tender relationship he creates with Grazina, and honestly, I fell a little in love with Sony the cousin for reasons I can’t fully explain. Maybe it was the softness, the loyalty, or just the way Vuong writes people like they’ve always been broken in interesting ways.The character development is rich and messy, and the storytelling is equal parts dreamlike and devastating. And of course, in true Ocean Vuong fashion, there’s at least one line that stays with you like a bruise:“Because to remember is to fill the present with the past, which meant that the cost of remembering anything, anything at all, is life itself. We murder ourselves, he thought, by remembering.”Tell me that doesn’t haunt you a little.
nitale –
Ein fantastischer Roman, absolute Empfehlung! Sehr poetische aber gut lesbare Sprache, berührende Geschichte.
Markus Funke –
5 stars for the book; 0 stars for the print and production. Unfortunately, the paperback is printed on-demand by Amazon which has the worse quality ever. Low resolution cover; shifted cover; strange front; bad glue. Wish I would have known that before. Do yourself a favor and go to your local bookstore and buy it there.