Whether you sobbed your way through the 2015 international bestseller A Little Life or haven’t read anything by Hanya Yanagihara before, you’ll want to dive into the author’s much-anticipated new novel To Paradise (Picador). Out today, it tells the stories of three characters living in the same house in Manhattan across three centuries, starting with a wealthy banking heir in 1893. One hundred years later, we follow a young man’s relationship with his older lover towards the end of the Aids epidemic, while the final narrative joins 20-something lab technician Charlie in the totalitarian, plague-ravaged world of 2093.
Stylist Loves editor Gemma Crisp was a huge fan of the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted A Little Life, but is relieved that To Paradise avoids the “take-your-breath-away brutality” of Yanagihara’s heartbreaking previous novel. There are similarities between the two books, though. “Once again, there’s a strong focus on LGBTQ+ relationships, and Yanagihara excels at creating characters you really care about,” says Gemma. “Timely and thought-provoking, it will stay with you – but thankfully not for the same reasons as A Little Life.”
Stylist Loves writer Kiran Meeda, meanwhile, had never read anything by Yanagihara before To Paradise. “I didn’t know what to expect,” she says. “But it’s an addictive, empathetic depiction of how humans have responded in the same ways to love, lust, tragedy and hardship throughout history. I loved it.” £20, Bookshop.org