The Emperor of Gladness is a 2025 novel by Ocean Vuong about a young Vietnamese-American college dropout, Hai, who forms an unlikely bond with an elderly Lithuanian widow, Grazina, in the fictional town of East Gladness, Connecticut, exploring themes of love, labor, loneliness, and finding chosen family on the fringes of society. The story follows Hai as he takes a job at a diner, where he and his coworkers, united by shared struggles, form a found family, all while grappling with grief, addiction, and the search for a second chance.