Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Vuong, Arnett, Dennis-Benn, Ohlin, and More

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from the likes of Ocean Vuong, Kristen Arnett, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Alix Ohlin, and more—that are publishing this week.

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On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Here’s what about : “Poet Vuong’s frank first novel (after ) takes the form of a letter from a man to his illiterate mother in which 28-year-old Little Dog, a writer who’s left the impoverished Hartford, Conn., of his youth for New York City, retraces his coming of age. His childhood is marked by abuse from his overworked mother, as well as the traumas he’s inherited from his mother’s and grandmother’s experiences during the Vietnam War. Having left Vietnam with them as a young boy, and after the incarceration of his father, Little Dog’s attempts to assimilate include contending with language barriers and the banal cruelty of the supposedly well-intentioned. He must also adapt to the world as a gay man and as a writer—the