On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel takes the form of a letter from a son to his mother, who cannot read. The writer, a young Vietnamese American nicknamed Little Dog, is in his late twenties, and the letter digs into a family history rooted in Vietnam that began before he was born, revealing sides of his life she has never seen. His mother, Rose, raises him as a single parent in Hartford, Connecticut, where she works in a nail salon. The narrative does not move in chronological order, and it takes up race, class and masculinity. Penguin Press published it in 2019; it was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and won the New England Book Award for Fiction.

Dua Lipa chose it for her Service95 Book Club, saying the title alone drew her in and that Vuong's poetic language lights up every page of the novel.