Reviews
Praise for A Little Life : "This is a novel that values the everyday over the extraordinary, the push and pull of human relationships--and the book's effect is cumulative. There is real pleasure in following characters over such a long period, as they react to setbacks and successes, and, in some cases, change. By the time the characters reach their 50s and the story arrives at its moving conclusion, readers will be attached and find them very hard to forget." -- Publishers Weekly , Praise for A Little Life : "This is a novel that values the everyday over the extraordinary, the push and pull of human relationships--and the book's effect is cumulative. There is real pleasure in following characters over such a long period, as they react to setbacks and successes, and, in some cases, change. By the time the characters reach their 50s and the story arrives at its moving conclusion, readers will be attached and find them very hard to forget." -- Publishers Weekly, Praise for A Little Life : "The phrase 'tour de force' could have been invented for this audacious novel." -- Kirkus Reviews , starred review "This is a novel that values the everyday over the extraordinary, the push and pull of human relationships--and the book's effect is cumulative. There is real pleasure in following characters over such a long period, as they react to setbacks and successes, and, in some cases, change. By the time the characters reach their 50s and the story arrives at its moving conclusion, readers will be attached and find them very hard to forget." -- Publishers Weekly , Praise for A Little Life : "Yanagihara's immense new book, A Little Life , announces her, as decisively as a second work can, as a major American novelist. Here is an epic study of trauma and friendship written with such intelligence and depth of perception that it will be one of the benchmarks against which all other novels that broach those subjects (and they are legion) will be measured." --Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal "With her sensitivity to everything from the emotional nuance to the play of light inside a subway car, Yanagihara is superb at capturing the radiant moments of beauty, warmth and kindness that help redeem the bad stuff. In A Little Life , it's life's evanescent blessings that maybe, but only maybe, can save you." --John Powers, NPR "Spring's must-read novel... If [Yanagihara's] assured 2013 debut, The People in the Trees , a dark allegory of Western hubris, put her on the literary map, her massive new novel...signals the arrival of a major new voice in fiction." -- Megan O'Grady , Vogue "Astonishing... It's not hyperbole to call this novel a masterwork--if anything that word is simply just too little for it." -- Caroline Leavitt, San Francisco Chronicle "[The] book has so much richness in it--great big passages of beautiful prose, unforgettable characters, and shrewd insights into art and ambition and friendship and forgiveness." -- Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly "It's a testament to Yanagihara's ability that she can take such ugly material and make it beautiful." --Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times "[A] monument of empathy, and that alone makes this novel wondrous." -- Claire Fallon, The Huffington Post " A Little Life is a harrowing novel with no happy ending, yet Yanagihara writes so well that it's difficult to put it down, even in the midst of sobbing. Somehow, it's an ordeal to read and a transformative experience, not soon forgotten." -- Anna Andersen, Minneapolis Star-Tribune "Yanagihara's most impressive trick is the way she glides from scenes filled with those terrifying hyenas to moments of epiphany. 'Wasn't it a miracle to have survived the unsurvivable? Wasn't friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely? Wasn't this house, this beauty, this comfort, this life a miracle?' A Little Life devotes itself to answering those questions, and is, in its own dark way, a miracle." -- Marion Winik, Newsday "[A] stunning work of fiction." -- Sherryl Connelly, The New York Daily News "Yanagihara's novel is a remarkable feat." -- Ilana Masad, Bustle.com "The phrase 'tour de force' could have been invented for this audacious novel." -- Kirkus Reviews , starred review "This is a novel that values the everyday over the extraordinary, the push and pull of human relationships--and the book's effect is cumulative. There is real pleasure in following characters over such a long period, as they react to setbacks and successes, and, in some cases, change. By the time the characters reach their 50s and the story arrives at its moving conclusion, readers will be attached and find them very hard to forget." -- Publishers Weekly, Praise for A Little Life : "The phrase 'tour de force' could have been invented for this audacious novel." -- Kirkus Reviews , starred review "This is a novel that values the everyday over the extraordinary, the push and pull of human relationships--and the book's effect is cumulative. There is real pleasure in following characters over such a long period, as they react to setbacks and successes, and, in some cases, change. By the time the characters reach their 50s and the story arrives at its moving conclusion, readers will be attached and find them very hard to forget." -- Publishers Weekly, Praise for A Little Life : "Yanagihara's immense new book, A Little Life , announces her, as decisively as a second work can, as a major American novelist. Here is an epic study of trauma and friendship written with such intelligence and depth of perception that it will be one of the benchmarks against which all other novels that broach those subjects (and they are legion) will be measured." --Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal "With her sensitivity to everything from the emotional nuance to the play of light inside a subway car, Yanagihara is superb at capturing the radiant moments of beauty, warmth and kindness that help redeem the bad stuff. In A Little Life , it's life's evanescent blessings that maybe, but only maybe, can save you." --John Powers, NPR "Spring's must-read novel... If [Yanagihara's] assured 2013 debut, The People in the Trees , a dark allegory of Western hubris, put her on the literary map, her massive new novel...signals the arrival of a major new voice in fiction." -- Megan O'Grady , Vogue "Astonishing... It's not hyperbole to call this novel a masterwork--if anything that word is simply just too little for it." -- Caroline Leavitt, San Francisco Chronicle "[The] book has so much richness in it--great big passages of beautiful prose, unforgettable characters, and shrewd insights into art and ambition and friendship and forgiveness." -- Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly "It's a testament to Yanagihara's ability that she can take such ugly material and make it beautiful." --Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times "[A] monument of empathy, and that alone makes this novel wondrous." -- Claire Fallon, The Huffington Post " A Little Life is a harrowing novel with no happy ending, yet Yanagihara writes so well that it's difficult to put it down, even in the midst of sobbing. Somehow, it's an ordeal to read and a transformative experience, not soon forgotten." -- Anna Andersen, Minneapolis Star-Tribune "Yanagihara's most impressive trick is the way she glides from scenes filled with those terrifying hyenas to moments of epiphany. 'Wasn't it a miracle to have survived the unsurvivable? Wasn't friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely? Wasn't this house, this beauty, this comfort, this life a miracle?' A Little Life devotes itself to answering those questions, and is, in its own dark way, a miracle." -- Marion Winik, Newsday "[A] stunning work of fiction." -- Sherryl Connelly, The New York Daily News "Yanagihara's novel is a remarkable feat." -- Ilana Masad, Bustle.com "The phrase 'tour de force' could have been invented for this audacious novel." -- Kirkus Reviews , starred review "This is a novel that values the everyday over the extraordinary, the push and pull of human relationships--and the book's effect is cumulative. There is real pleasure in following characters over such a long period, as they react to setbacks and successes, and, in some cases, change. By the time the characters reach their 50s and the story arrives at its moving conclusion, readers will be attached and find them very hard to forget." -- Publishers Weekly