検索キーワード： "Ocean Vuong" 友情

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.

The Emperor of Gladness follows a wayward young man in New England who, out of sheer chance, becomes the caretaker for an 82-year-old widow living with dementia. Hallmarks of Vuong's writing - formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness - are on full display in this masterful story of friendship and how much we’re willing to risk to possess one of life’s most treasured mercies: a second chance.

Ocean Vuongs neues, atemberaubendes Werk nach dem Welterfolg von Auf Erden sind wir kurz grandios. Der queere Hai, Sohn einer vietnamesischen Mutter, lebt in East Gladness, einer heruntergekommenen Industriestadt in New England. Überall hängen die Schilder der Obama-Kampagne "Yes, we can", doch Hai schluckt Pillen und denkt an Selbstmord. Bis er Grazina aus Litauen kennenlernt, eine Überlebende des Zweiten Weltkriegs, in deren Kopf noch die Stimmen der Opfer schwirren. Beide verbindet eine innere Verwundung.