The Emperor of Gladness: Ocean Vuong
Fri, May 30
|Calvary Presbyterian Church
Poet and novelist Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.
Time & Location
May 30, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Calvary Presbyterian Church, 2515 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA
About The Event
Co-presented with Green Apple Books
“A masterwork.” —Bryan Washington, author of Palaver and Family Meal
The inimitable Vuong will join us in SF for a reading of his work and a conversation with another author, TBD, followed by audience Q+A.
Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. 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 transform…