To Paradise

Hanya Yanagihara's ambitious "To Paradise" unfurls across three distinct centuries, presenting three interwoven narratives that reimagine the American experiment and delve into the enduring quest for utopia. The journey begins in an alternate 1893, where New York is part of the progressive Free States, and a young scion of a distinguished family defies convention by rejecting an arranged marriage for a passionate, forbidden love. Shifting to a 1993 Manhattan ravaged by the AIDS epidemic, the novel follows a Hawaiian man navigating life with his much older, wealthier partner, grappling with a troubled past and hidden sorrows. Finally, in a dystopian 2093, a world scarred by plagues and governed by autocratic rule, the granddaughter of a powerful scientist embarks on a desperate search for her vanished husband, all while contending with her own emotional damage. These narratives, though disparate in time, resonate with recurring motifs of love, loss, illness, societal struggle, and the yearning for belonging, crafting a symphony of human experience that probes the elusive nature of paradise and the profound qualities that define us.