256 pages |Paperback

The brilliant,New York Timesbestselling debut that has taken the literary world by storm: Award-winning poet Ocean Vuongs debut novel, a sweeping and shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling

On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeousis a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a familys history that began before he was borna history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnamand serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling ones own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard. With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.