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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel
Ocean Vuong
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The instant New York Times Bestseller • Nominated for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction.
“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.
Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and 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 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!
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Posts about this title from Boundless Press
Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Sep 28 2025
the ultimate guide to fall book recs 🍂 30+ autumn books you need to read
let me know what books you'd recommend for the fall!
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Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Dec 31 2022
every book i read in 2022 rated & reviewed in 1 sentence
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💌 for business/sponsorship inquiries please contact eric@smallscreenmarketing.com 💌 for all other inquiries please contact me at thisstoryaintover@gmail.com
faqs 🤍 how do you pronounce your name? - my name is Jananie—pronounced JEN-nah-nee (like a knee!)
🤍 what's your background/ethnicity/etc? - both my parents are Sri Lankan Tamil, and I was born and raised in Canada!
🤍 what is your job? - aside from youtube I also work in product marketing!
63 books
Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Sep 16 2022
all 24 books i read this summer ✨ reading wrapup
join me as I breakdown all 24 books I read this summer!! let me know what your favourite book you read this summer was! 🥰
🤍 timestamps ↳ 0:00 intro ↳ 1:17 know my name by chanel miller ↳ 2:29 empire of sand by tasha suri ↳ 2:59 on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong ↳ 4:12 blue skinned gods by s. j. sindu ↳ 4:52 this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar & max gladstone ↳ 5:50 the roughest draft by austin siegemund-broka & emily wibberley ↳ 6:43 convenience store woman by sayaka murata ↳ 7:59 book lovers by emily henry ↳ 8:43 violeta by isabel allende ↳ 9:28 the paris apartment by lucy foley ↳ 10:09 daughter of the moon goddess by sue lynn tan ↳ 10:57 this woven kingdom by tahereh mafi ↳ 11:56 crooked hallelujah by kelli jo ford ↳ 12:35 little fires everywhere by celeste ng ↳ 13:24 an american marriage by tayari jones ↳ 14:53 eleanor oliphant is completely fine by gail honeyman ↳ 15:18 the vanishing half by brit bennett ↳ 16:25 red, white & royal blue by casey mcquiston ↳ 17:35 i'm glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy ↳ 18:53 luster by raven leilani ↳ 19:54 disorientation by elaine hsieh chou ↳ 20:53 you exist too much by zaina arafat ↳ 21:43 rosewater by tade thompson ↳ 23:03 the school for good mothers ↳ 24:52 outro
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💌 for business/sponsorship inquiries please contact eric@smallscreenmarketing.com 💌 for all other inquiries please contact me at thisstoryaintover@gmail.com
faqs 🤍 how do you pronounce your name? - my name is Jananie—pronounced JEN-nah-nee (like a knee!)
🤍 what's your background/ethnicity/etc? - both my parents are Sri Lankan Tamil, and I was born and raised in Canada!
🤍 what is your job? - aside from youtube I also work in product marketing!
24 books
Posts about this book from across Bindery
Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Sep 28 2025
the ultimate guide to fall book recs 🍂 30+ autumn books you need to read
let me know what books you'd recommend for the fall!
34 books
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The Black Bird Commons\ \ Tim\ \ • Oct 1 2024
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Join my conversation with Minda Honey, author of THE HEARTBREAK YEARS, a mmoir about one woman's journey through her 20s and the love and relationships she experiences before she turns 30.
We talk about the book, and how the people within become "characters" even as it's a memoir. We talk about making friends as an adult. We talk about her writing journey and how it got from fictional stories, to essays, to a full-fledged Memoir.
She also tells us which of the many cities she has lived in would be the life of a party, if cities were humans!
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Scribe Tribe\ \ Jahid\ \ • Aug 6 2024
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Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Dec 31 2022
every book i read in 2022 rated & reviewed in 1 sentence
join as a channel member to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJn0v3OAEAX3-V4crjcHtRA/join
💌 for business/sponsorship inquiries please contact eric@smallscreenmarketing.com 💌 for all other inquiries please contact me at thisstoryaintover@gmail.com
faqs 🤍 how do you pronounce your name? - my name is Jananie—pronounced JEN-nah-nee (like a knee!)
🤍 what's your background/ethnicity/etc? - both my parents are Sri Lankan Tamil, and I was born and raised in Canada!
🤍 what is your job? - aside from youtube I also work in product marketing!
63 books
Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Sep 16 2022
all 24 books i read this summer ✨ reading wrapup
join me as I breakdown all 24 books I read this summer!! let me know what your favourite book you read this summer was! 🥰
other places to find me 🤍 my website: https://www.jananiekvelu.com/ 🤍 my series # EpicBookRecs on the Epic Reads Channel: https://bit.ly/2XziOfz
💌 for business/sponsorship inquiries please contact eric@smallscreenmarketing.com 💌 for all other inquiries please contact me at thisstoryaintover@gmail.com
faqs 🤍 how do you pronounce your name? - my name is Jananie—pronounced JEN-nah-nee (like a knee!)
🤍 what's your background/ethnicity/etc? - both my parents are Sri Lankan Tamil, and I was born and raised in Canada!
🤍 what is your job? - aside from youtube I also work in product marketing!
24 books