An instant New York Times Bestseller!Longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal in Fiction, the 2019 Aspen Words Literacy Prize, and the Pen/Hemingway Debut Novel AwardShortlisted for the 2019 Center for Fiction First Novel PrizeWinner of the 2019 New England Book Award for Fiction!Named one of the most anticipated books of 2019 by Vulture, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Oprah.com, Huffington Post, The A.v. Club, Nylon, The Week, The Rumpus, The Millions, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and more.a lyrical work of self-discovery thats shockingly intimate and insistently universalNot so much briefly gorgeous as permanently stunning.Ron Charles, The Washington PostPoet Ocean Vuongs debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytellingOn Earth Were 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 familys 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.