Skip to content

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel Paperback - 2019

by Vuong, Ocean

  • Used
  • very good
  • Paperback

Description

Paperback. Very Good.
Used - Very Good
NZ$22.32
NZ$18.05 Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 7 to 40 days
More Shipping Options
Ships from World of Books Ltd (West Sussex, United Kingdom)
The BIBLIO Guarantee | Ask Seller a Question

Details

  • Title On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel
  • Author Vuong, Ocean
  • Binding Paperback
  • Condition Used - Very Good
  • Pages 256
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Press
  • Date 2019-06-04
  • Bookseller's Inventory # GOR010174249
  • ISBN 9780525562023 / 0525562028
  • Weight 0.8 lbs (0.36 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 in (21.59 x 14.73 x 2.29 cm)
  • Themes
    • Topical: Coming of Age
    • Topical: Lgbt
  • Library of Congress subjects Mothers and sons, Bildungsromans
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2018046290
  • Dewey Decimal Code 813.6

About World of Books Ltd West Sussex, United Kingdom

Biblio member since 2007
Seller rating: This seller has earned a 2 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.

In 2002, World of Books Group was founded on an ethos to do good, protect the planet and support charities by enabling more goods to be reused. Since then, we've grown into to a global company pioneering the circular economy. Today, we drive the circular economy through three re-commerce brands: - Wob: Through Wob, we sell. We provide affordable, preloved books and media to customers all over the world. A book leaves our collection of over seven million titles and begins a new chapter every two seconds, enabling more goods to be reused. - Ziffit: Through Ziffit, we buy. We give people around the world the opportunity to contribute to the circular economy, earn money and protect the planet, by trading their unwanted books and media. - Shopiago: Through Shopiago, we help others. By sharing the technology that has grown World of Books Group into the business it is today, we're helping charities increase revenue and reduce waste through re-commerce.

Terms of Sale:

If you are not completely satisfied with your purchase for any reason, simply email customerservice@worldofbooks.com and we will quickly resolve any issues you may have. If you have any other queries about your order, please email customerservice@worldofbooks.com. Our goal is to deliver to our customers the best possible service and we hope your experience of dealing with us lives up to our promise. If for whatever reason we fail to meet your expectations then please let us know.

Browse books from World of Books Ltd

Summary

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 epicenter 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 our American moment, immersed as we are 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 (from publishers website).

From the publisher

A New York Times bestseller - Nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction - Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling

"A lyrical work of self-discovery that's shockingly intimate and insistently universal...Not so much briefly gorgeous as permanently stunning." --Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"This is one of the best novels I've ever read...Ocean Vuong is a master. This book a masterpiece."--Tommy Orange, author of There There and Wandering Stars

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 epicenter 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 our American moment, immersed as we are 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.

Named a Best Book of the Year by:
GQ, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal, TIME, Esquire, The Washington Post, Apple, Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker, The New York Public Library, Elle.com, The Guardian, The A.V. Club, NPR, Lithub, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, and more!

Media reviews

Citations

  • Booklist, 04/15/2019, Page 21
  • BookPage, 06/01/2019, Page 0
  • Kirkus Reviews, 04/01/2019, Page 45
  • Library Journal, 03/01/2019, Page 120
  • Library Journal Prepub Alert, 01/01/2019, Page 53
  • Publishers Weekly, 04/01/2019, Page 0

About the author

Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time is a Mother, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the 2019 MacArthur "Genius" Grant, he is also the winner of the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Hang on… we’re fetching the requested page.