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Ocean Vuong, author of The Emperor of Gladness

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, 19-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family and a community on the brink.

Week of July 13, 2026

Paperback releases for the week of July 13th include WE ARE ALL GUILTY HERE, the first thrilling mystery in Karin Slaughter's North Falls series, which our reviewer Ray Palen says “hits hard enough to take the breath out of you and leaves behind indelible images of depravity that are difficult to shake”; THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS by Ocean Vuong, a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive; Rebecca Armitage's THE HEIR APPARENTan irresistible modern fairy tale about a British princess who must decide between her duty to her family --- or to her own heart; and THE MOTHER NEXT DOOR by Andrea Dunlop (the host and creator of the award-winning true crime podcast “Nobody Should Believe Me”) and Mike Weber,   a groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that investigates Munchausen by proxy.