Fans of Hanya Yanagihara’s astonishing novel, A Little Life, will be excited to hear that the author’s next book is finally on the horizon.
Picador and Doubleday are set to publish To Paradise simultaneously in the UK and the US on January 11, 2022. In an announcement on Pan Macmillan’s website, Picador’s Editor-in-Chief, Ravi Mirchandani, described the book as being as deeply moving and powerfully propulsive as it is haunting and thought-provoking, confessing himself in awe of Yanagihara’s achievement in writing the novel.
“We at Picador are delighted to be publishing Hanya’s extraordinary new novel, an immensely powerful fictional exploration of the issue of who paradise is for – for any idea of paradise crucially also involves an idea of who must be excluded from it. It is very much a novel about the soul, the past and the future, of the United States, but at a time when political issues of diversity and inclusion engage us as much as those of whom we wish to – or should – exclude from our homes, our public places and our nation-states, it engages with issues of race and sexuality, imperialism and disease that are central to all our lives, wherever in the world we happen to live.”
Spanning three centuries and three different versions of America, To Paradise is described as a bold, brilliant novel about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia. In an alternate version of 1983 America, New York is part of the Free States where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. 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. And 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 disappearances.
Yanagihara’s A Little Life was one of the biggest books of 2015 in terms of both size and impact. The book follows four college friends as they navigate adult life in New York City, focusing primarily on Jude and his deeply troubled past. Heavy with themes of violence, abuse, self-harm and the lingering effects of juvenile trauma, the book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award, won the Kirkus Prize and featured on more than twenty Best Books lists for the year.
Anyone wishing to read the full release can do so here.
