“Ocean Vuong crafts a story of intergenerational connection-of labor, love, memory, and care-while bridging the intimate and the epic, the lyric and the narrative . . . The Emperor of Gladness is a testament to the ways we find-and carve out-a sense of home in one another. As he has continually done in his work for the last decade, Vuong insists on the radical possibilities of tenderness and communion, and on our ability to remain in awe of this world even as our lives and the structures we rely on may be fracturing. The Emperor of Gladness offers readers a special gift: the practice of looking carefully at the world around us, and at the people who surround us, with more meaning and care.” –Poets & Writers