A new novel from A Little Life author Hanya Yanagihara is coming next year.
Doubleday will publish To Paradise, the third novel from the New York–based author, the press announced in a news release. It will be Yanagihara’s first book since the phenomenally successful A Little Life, which rocked the literary world in 2015, becoming a finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award and winning the Kirkus Prize. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “The phrase ‘tour de force’ could have been invented for this audacious novel.”
Doubleday describes To Paradise as “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.”
The novel consists of three sections, taking place in 1893, 1993, and 2093, respectively. It addresses themes of illness, wealth, race, and family, Doubleday says.
“To Paradise is a fin de siècle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius,” the publisher says. “The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s 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.”
Doubleday publisher and editor-in-chief Bill Thomas praised the novel as “astonishing.”
“That the novel has such scope and range and ambition, yet feels so intimate, is a testament to Hanya Yanagihara’s capacious mind, imagination and heart,” he said.
To Paradise is scheduled for publication on Jan. 11, 2022.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
