Ocean Vuong

One of literature’s most exciting names, Ocean Vuong, comes to Hay Festival for the first time to discuss his achingly beautiful novel The Emperor of Gladness. Exploring chosen family and unexpected friendship, the novel tells the story of 19-year-old Hai, who’s stopped from jumping off a bridge by the voice of Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia. The pair form a life-altering bond, and each find ways to heal through their extraordinary friendship. Join an unmissable conversation with the author who set the literary world alight with his bestselling novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.