The Emperor of Gladness

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Heartbreaking, heartwarming yet unsentimental, and savagely comic' Guardian

Some of the most beautiful writing I've experienced in my lifetime' Oprah Winfrey

College dropout Hai doesn't know how to face the future until a chance meeting with elderly widow Grazina changes his life.

One 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.

When Hai takes a job at a diner to support himself and Grazina, his fellow workers become the family he didn't expect to find. United by desperation and circumstance, and existing on the fringes of society, together they bear witness to each other's survival.