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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
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  • Published: 15 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9781529110685
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $28.00

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Formats & editions
Paperback
15 Sept 2020
EBook
20 June 2019
Audiobook
20 June 2019
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The Sunday Times bestselling debut novel from the prize-winning prodigy

** Sunday Times Bestseller **

Brilliant, heart-breaking and highly original, TikTok has fallen in love with Ocean Vuong's shattering portrait of a family.

This 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. It tells of Vietnam, of the lasting impact of war, and of his family's struggle to forge a new future. It serves as a doorway into parts of Little Dog's life his mother has never known - episodes of bewilderment, fear and passion - all the while moving closer to an unforgettable revelation.

'A marvel' Marlon James

'Luminous, shattering, urgent, necessary' Celeste Ng
  • Published: 15 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9781529110685
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $28.00
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About the author

Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, winner of the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His writings have also been featured in The Atlantic, Harper's, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. In 2019 he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he serves as an Assistant Professor of English at UMass-Amherst. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is his first novel.

portrait photo of Ocean Vuong

Also by Ocean Vuong

The Emperor of Gladness
Time is a Mother
Night Sky with Exit Wounds
See all

Discover more

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Ocean Vuong, Poet and Fiction Writer | 2019 MacArthur Fellow

Ocean Vuong is a poet and fiction writer. His is carrying folkloric traditions with linguistic experimentation in works that explore the effects of intergenerational trauma, the refugee experience, and the complexities of identity and desire with eloquence and clarity. The MacArthur Fellowship is a $625,000, no-strings-attached grant for individuals who have shown exceptional creativity in their work and the promise to do more. Explore their stories on social media with the hashtag #MacFellow, and check out all of the 2019 MacArthur Fellows, 26 creative people who inspire us all: www.macfound.org/macfellow.