THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS

THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER AND TIKTOK SENSATIONREADERS ARE OBSESSED WITH THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS:Read it slowly. Let it wreck you. Then read it againI feel like I lost part of my soul to this book a contender for my favourite of the yearI would give it 6 stars if I couldSad and funny devastating and quietly celebratoryA masterwork of compassion and complexity. A book to sit with to feel deeply and to return toCollege dropout Hai doesnt know how to face the future until a chance meeting with elderly widow Grazina changes his life in this achingly beautiful novel about chosen family and second chancesOne 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.The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which our lives are changed by the most unexpected of people. When Hai takes a job at a diner to support himself and Grazina his fellow workers become the family he didnt expect to find. United by desperation and circumstance and existing on the fringes of society together they bear witness to each others survival.This is an unforgettable story of unexpected friendship and how far we would go to possess one of lifes most fleeting mercies: a second chance.A Most Anticipated Book in Guardian Financial Times Sunday Times Style BBC GQ New York Times and AnOtherHeartbreaking heartwarming yet unsentimental and savagely comic all at the same time'' Guardian''A poetic dramatic and vivid story. It has an epic sweep but it also handles intimacy and love with delicacy and deep originality'' COLM TIBN''Tender and moving'' REBECCA SOLNIT''A masterwork'' BRYAN WASHINGTON