Yanagihara’s first novel, The People in the Trees, drew on the timeless quest for immortality—and its always devastating consequences. In her second work of fiction, now available in paperback, the National Book Award finalist starts with an equally familiar premise—the course of four friends from college to middle age—and takes it in new and stunning directions. Jude is the core of the ambitious group of young men that leaves Massachusetts for New York, but his success as a lawyer is undercut by the life-long effects of childhood abuse and trauma. Yanagihara’s narrative is an insightful portrait of the extremes of endurance and the consolations of friendship.
This event is part of the Politics & Prose and the PEN/Faulkner Foundation Contemporary Fiction Reading Series at Busboys and Poets.
