About this Event
Parnassus Books and Nashville Public Library Foundation are pleased to present an evening with Ocean Vuong, in conversation with Ann Patchett, to celebrate Ocean's new book, The Emperor of Gladness. This is a ticketed event and will take place in the auditorium of Nashville Public Library's main branch (615 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37219) on Sunday, May 18th.
Auditorium doors will open at 4:45 and the event will begin at 5:30.
Ticketing:
You must have a ticket to attend this event.
Each ticket is $33.00 and includes one general admission seat in the main auditorium and a signed copy of The Emperor of Gladness.
Please note, there will NOT be a signing line for personalizations following this event.
Parking:
Parking is available in the Library/Church Street Parking Garage. The 1st 1.5 hours are free with validated parking (provided inside the library lobby at the circulation desk) Regular rates apply after the 1.5 hours.
About the book:
"The Emperor of Gladness is a poetic, dramatic and vivid story. Epic in its sweep, the novel also handles intimacy and love with delicacy and deep originality. Hai and Grazina are taken from the margins of American life by Ocean Vuong and, by dint of great sympathy and imaginative genius, placed at the very center of our world." --Colm Tóibín, author of Long Island and Brooklyn
"A masterwork." --Bryan Washington, author of Palaver and Family Meal
Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted 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 Hai's relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink.
Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong's writing--formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness--are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life's most fleeting mercies: a second chance.
About the author:
Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the American Book Award, he used to work as a fast-food server, which inspired The Emperor of Gladness. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently splits his time between Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York City.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Nashville Public Library, 615 Church Street, Nashville, United States
USD 37.05
