On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is Ocean Vuong's debut novel, published in 2019. The novel is a series of vignettes written as a letter from Little Dog to his mother, Rose. In it, he reiterates memories of his childhood as well as memories of Vietnam passed down to him from his family. As Rose is illiterate and will most likely never read the letter, the novel is more about articulating and processing traumatic memories and trying to break free of them. The novel explores the themes of love, trauma, language, and sexual identity.
The novel spent six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, was named one of the top ten books of 2019 by The Washington Post, won the 2019 New England...
