Ocean Vuong’s work has critics decrying its prose while defenders celebrate its beauty. The debate has morphed into a battle ...

The Southern California Independent Bookstore Bestsellers list for Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025, including hardcover and paperback ...

The Upcycled Self by Tariq Trotter, better known as Black Thought, for layered storytelling that reads like a song, is ...

The cover of “The Emperor of Gladness” by Ocean Vuong shows a silhouette with sunlight behind it. The novel was released May 13 and follows Vuong’s acclaimed 2019 book “On Earth We’re ...

Ocean Vuong’s magnificent and melancholy second novel, "The Emperor of Gladness," is both ode and reproach. It pays tribute to the human ability to act with kindness toward others even when ...

Author Ocean Vuong talks about his new novel, The Emperor of Gladness. It centers on the unlikely friendship between a 19-year-old college dropout and an 82-year-old with dementia.

Ocean Vuong’s new novel follows Hai as he takes care of Grazina and works in a fast-casual restaurant to help support them. Told in moments, “The Emperor of Gladness” takes existentialism to ...

Ocean Vuong compared the publishing of his work to sending a raft down a river: He has to be willing to let go and accept unknown results. “If you’re on the raft, you can’t make anything,” he said.

Author Ocean Vuong talks about his new novel, The Emperor of Gladness. It centers on the unlikely friendship between a 19-year-old college dropout and an 82-year-old with dementia.

Author Ocean Vuong talks about his new novel, The Emperor of Gladness. It centers on the unlikely friendship between a 19-year-old college dropout and an 82-year-old with dementia.