02489cam a2200517 i 4500 2652427438 TxAuBib 20260107120000.0 240517s2025||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2024022675 9780593831878 hardcover 059383187X hardcover (OCoLC)1434572815 TxAuBib rda Vuong, Ocean, 1988-, author. The emperor of gladness : a novel / Ocean Vuong. New York : Penguin Press, 2025. 402 pages ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier "Oprah's book club 2025"--Cover. "A year in the life of a wayward young man in New England who, by chance, becomes the caretaker for an eighty-two-year-old widow living with dementia, powering a story of friendship, loss, and how much we're willing to risk to claim one of life's most treasured mercies: a second chance"-- Provided by publisher. 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. 20260107. Interpersonal relations Fiction. Dementia Fiction. Grief Fiction. Caregivers Fiction. Loneliness Fiction. Interpersonal relations. fast Dementia. fast Grief. fast Caregivers. fast Loneliness. fast New England Fiction. New England. fast Northeastern States. fast Psychological fiction. fast Queer fiction. fast Novels. fast LGBTQ+ fiction. homoit Fiction. fast Psychological fiction. fast Queer fiction. fast