To Paradise

Hanya Yanagihara's 'To Paradise' is an ambitious novel spanning three distinct centuries – 1893, 1993, and 2093 – each presenting a different iteration of the American experiment. Across these timelines, characters navigate complex relationships, societal expectations, and global crises, all while grappling with love, loss, identity, and the elusive quest for an ideal society.
In an alternate 1893, New York is part of the Free States where social norms regarding love and partnership are redefined. A young scion from a prominent family resists an arranged betrothal, drawn instead to a music teacher of modest means. A century later, in 1993 Manhattan amidst the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with an older, affluent partner, concealing his past and his father's fate. By 2093, a world scarred by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule sees a scientist's damaged granddaughter striving to comprehend her existence and solve the mystery of her husband's recurring disappearances.
These narratives are connected by recurring motifs and themes: a historic townhouse in Washington Square Park, the impact of illness and costly treatments, the stark contrast between wealth and poverty, the dynamics of power, racial identity, the definition of family and nation, and the perpetual human longing for an earthly paradise—and the gradual understanding of its impossibility. The novel ultimately explores universal human experiences: fear, love, shame, need, and loneliness.
Why You Should Read?
Offers a vast, multi-timeline narrative exploring alternative histories and speculative futures.
Examines profound human experiences and societal structures through complex character relationships.
Features Hanya Yanagihara's distinctive literary voice and emotional depth.
Provokes thought on themes of freedom, utopia, love, and the consequences of societal control.