"Brilliant, heartbreaking, tender, and highly original - poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a sweeping and shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling. 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...

Told in alternating voices, seventeen-year-old Jane rails against her family's Vietnamese culture and struggles with a perpetually angry father, whose traumatic journey to the United States as an eleven-year-old refugee is revealed in flashbacks.

"From the critically acclaimed author of The Kiss Quotient comes a romantic novel about love that crosses international borders and all boundaries of the heart. Khai Diep thinks he's defective, but his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes returns to Vietnam to find the perfect bride"-- Khai Diep has no feelings. Oh, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment...

Bảo Nguye̋n would describe himself as steady and strong: his grades are average, his social status unremarkable. He works at his parents' phở restaurant, as his parents' fifth favorite employee. Linh Mai would describe herself as a firecracker: stable when unlit, but full of potential for joy and fire. She dreams of pursuing a career in art, while working practically full-time at her family's phở restaurant. Bảo and Linh have never even had...

"An American GI, two Vietnamese bargirls, and an Amerasian man are forced to make decisions during and after the Viet Nam War that will reverberate throughout one another's lives"--

When Hà arrived in Alabama as a refugee from the Vietnam War, she was sure she'd never get used to this strange land. But in just two years she has made friends, earning A's at school, and has found a sense of belonging.