To Paradise

To Paradise is a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the elusive idea of utopia; driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of our desire to protect those we love – partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens – and the pain that ensues when we cannot. In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love as they please (or so it seems). In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. In 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him – and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearance. What unites these characters, and these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human – fear, love, shame, need, loneliness – and the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise.