Jonathan Cape to publish Ocean Vuong’s ‘breathtaking’ new novel

Ocean Vuong’s new novel, The Emperor of Gladness, will be published by Jonathan Cape in June 2025.  

Hannah Westland, publishing director at Jonathan Cape, acquired UK and Commonwealth Rights from Caspian Dennis on behalf of Frances Coady at Aragi, Inc. North American rights were sold by Frances Coady to Ann Godoff at Penguin Press. Various other international rights have been sold, including Dutch, German, Spanish and Catalan.

The book follows a “wayward young man” in New England who becomes the caretaker for an 82-year-old widow living with dementia.  

“Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this masterful story of friendship and how much we’re willing to risk to possess one of life’s most treasured mercies: a second chance,” Vintage said. 

Westland said: “Ocean Vuong is one of the world’s most accomplished and celebrated writers, and his prize-winning work is both critically acclaimed and deeply beloved by legions of readers all over the world.

“This is a breathtaking and profound novel: a beautiful story of unexpected friendship, and a vivid reckoning with the hardships and triumphs of life in the unsung corners of America, told in shimmering, effervescent prose full of love, wit and intelligence. It is our great honour to be his publisher and we can’t wait to share this extraordinary book with the world.”  

Vuong is a writer, professor, and photographer. He is the author of two collections of poetry – most recently, the Sunday Times-bestselling Time Is a Mother – as well as the Sunday Times-bestselling novel and million-copy international bestseller On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (both published by Cape), which has been translated into almost 40 languages. His collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Cape) was the winner of both the T S Eliot Prize in 2019 and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.  

In 2019, Vuong was a recipient of a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant. He splits his time between Massachusetts and New York, where he serves as a professor in modern poetry and poetics in the MFA programme at NYU.