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Oprah’s latest book club pick—it’s 114th selection—is Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness. The award-winning poet-turned-novelist’s newest book just came out this week, and follows “the cycles of history, memory and time.”
In it, 19-year-old Hai stands atop a bridge one summer evening, ready to jump, when dementia-stricken elderly widow Grazina talks him into going down another path. So begins the pair’s journey together, which involves Hai becoming Grazina’s caretaker and him reckoning with himself and his place in his community. Zooming out, we see what it means to live in the margins in America, and how loneliness, love, and labor are foundational to this society.
“Ocean Vuong’s ability to […] take characters that have ordinary lives and give extraordinary meaning to those lives makes us each think of our lives differently. He is a brilliant writer, a poet and a master of words.” — Oprah
For more information about the book club and the latest pick—and for an excerpt!—visit Oprah.com.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world inBreaking in Books.