A year in the life of a wayward young man in New England who, by chance, becomes the caretaker for an eighty-two-year-old widow living with dementia, powering a story of friendship, loss, and how much we're willing to risk to claim one of life's most treasured mercies: a second chance.
A welcome surprise. It is a sweet, charming, conventional novel whose ambition does not outstrip its ability ... What a pleasure to be given characters and a plot! ... The author finally seems to have accepted that prose, unlike poetry, will wither and die without a reader who can actually understand it: At last, he is talking to us.
Magnificent and melancholy ... Its opening pages are as melodic as a symphony ... This is a novel that percolates and simmers, provoking questions about the reader’s privilege while prompting awe at the writer’s singular empathy—and his subjects’ humility.
There is a terrific ripeness to the pages of The Emperor of Gladness that sometimes edges into bruising ... There are trenchant observations ... The dialogue does a lot for the story—maybe too much.
