On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

by Ocean Vuong

3.75 of 5 stars 6 ratings • 3 reviews • 39 shelved
Book cover for On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

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**THE SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**
**WINNER OF THE MARK TWAIN AMERICAN VOICE IN LITERATURE AWARD 2020**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2020**


Brilliant, heart-breaking, tender, and highly original – poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a sweeping and shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is 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 family's history that began before he was born – a history whose epicentre is rooted in Vietnam – and 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 the American moment, immersed as it is in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's 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.

**A FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD 2020**

‘This romantic, lusciously written debut lingers over kisses’ The Times

‘So very full of beauty and power. Also, grace’ Tommy Orange, Observer

‘A magical synthesis of memoir, fiction and poetry’ Joyce Carol Oates, TLS

  • ISBN10 1787331504
  • ISBN13 9781787331501
  • Publish Date 20 June 2019 (first published 4 June 2019)
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 8 April 2021
  • Publish Country GB
  • Publisher Vintage Publishing
  • Imprint Jonathan Cape Ltd
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 256
  • Language English