num_pages: 720
description: From the author of the classic A Little Life a bold brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment about lovers family loss and the elusive promise of utopia.In an alternate version of 1893 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 scientists damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without himand solve the mystery of her husbands disappearances.These three sections are joined in an enthralling and ingenious symphony as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise and the gradual realization that it cant exist. What unites not just the characters but these Americas are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness.To Paradise is a fin de sicle novel of marvellous literary effect but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagiharas understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love  partners lovers children friends family and even our fellow citizens  and the pain that ensues when we cannot.
language: English
title: To Paradise
publisher: Doubleday