The Emperor of Gladness
€19.00
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 alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.
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Description
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
‘Heartbreaking, heartwarming yet unsentimental, and savagely comic' Guardian
‘Some of the most beautiful writing I’ve experienced in my lifetime’ Oprah Winfrey
READERS ARE OBSESSED WITH 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’
College dropout Hai doesn’t know how to face the future until a chance meeting with elderly widow Grazina changes his life.
One summer evening in the town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on a bridge, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond.
When Hai takes a job at a diner to support himself and Grazina, his fellow workers become the family he didn’t expect to find. United by desperation and circumstance, and existing on the fringes of society, together they bear witness to each other’s survival.
This is an unforgettable story of unexpected friendship and how far people go to find a second chance.
'The first millennial Great American Novel’ ArtReview
‘His most vivid, ambitious work yet’ Dazed
‘This stunning book moved me so much’ CAITR+ONA BALFE
'A poetic, dramatic and vivid story’ COLM TaIB+N
Additional information
| Weight | 0.502 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 23.4 × 15.5 × 3 cm |
| Book_author | Vuong, Ocean |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Imprint | Jonathan Cape |
| Cover | Paperback |
| Pages | 416 |
| Language | English |
| Edition | Export ed |
| Dewey | 813.6 (edition:23) |
| Readership | General – Trade / Code: K |
