The Emperor of Gladness

《此生, 你我皆短暫燦爛》、《夜空穿透傷》作者王鷗行2025年最新小說力作

The Emperor of Gladness是一個富有詩意、戲劇性且生動的故事。小說的規模宏大，卻也以細膩與深刻的原創性處理親密與愛情。海(Hai)和格拉齊娜(Grazina)，憑藉著極大的同情心和想像力的天賦，王鷗行將他們從美國生活的邊緣拉出，並將他們輕輕的置於我們世界的中心。 ——柯姆．托賓（Colm Tóibín），《布魯克林》的作者

王鷗行帶著一部充滿大愛的小說回來了，一部關於選擇家人、意外友誼，以及我們為了生存所編撰出的人生劇本的小說。

康乃狄克州東快樂市的後工業時代小鎮的一個夏末傍晚，滂沱大雨中，十九歲的海站在一座橋的邊緣，當他正準備往下跳時，卻聽見河對岸傳來有人大聲喊叫。那個聲音來自格拉齊娜，一位受失智症所苦的年邁寡婦。格拉齊娜的喊叫聲將海從死亡邊緣拉回。就這樣，無依無靠且無路可走的海，成為了格拉齊娜的看護。原本毫無關連的兩人，在接下來的一年間，將共同構築出深厚的羈絆，並讓海獲得改變他與自己、家人與瀕臨崩潰的社區間關係的力量。

The Emperor of Gladness追溯歷史、記憶和時間的循環，展現了愛、勞動和孤獨如何構成美國生活的基石。小說的核心是一部勇敢的史詩，講述了在社會邊緣生存並與那些困擾我們集體靈魂的傷口和解的意義。王鷗行的寫作特色——形式創新、語法靈活以及結合堅韌與優雅的能力——在這部關於失落、希望，以及擁有生命中第二次機會的故事中得到了充分展現。

“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.