It’s a life, just like everyone else’s, but in Yanagihara’s hands, it’s also tender and large, affecting and transcendent not a little life at all.’ ‘A Little Life is a witness to human suffering pushed to its limits, drawn in extraordinary detail by incantatory prose … Through insightful detail and her decade-by-decade examination of these people’s lives, Yanagihara has drawn a deeply realized character study that inspires as much as devastates. Like the axiom of equality, A Little Life feels elemental, irreducible-and, dark and disturbing though it is, there is beauty in it.’ Jude’s suffering is so extensively documented because it is the foundation of his character … Yanagihara’s novel can also drive you mad, consume you, and take over your life. It is not included for shock value or titillation, as is sometimes the case in works of horror or crime fiction. ‘A Little Life becomes a surprisingly subversive novel-one that uses the middle-class trappings of naturalistic fiction to deliver an unsettling meditation on sexual abuse, suffering, and the difficulties of recovery … Yanagihara’s rendering of Jude’s abuse never feels excessive or sensationalist. Malcolm is an architect at a prominent firm and later goes on to start his own, designing houses for those close to him. He comes from a wealthy background and as a result, doesn’t ever worry about money and is generous to his friends. Malcolm grew up on the Upper East Side of New York City and still lives there with his family. Later in the novel, JB battles drug addiction which his friends struggle to help him overcome. Described as quick-witted and sometimes cruel, he often uses his friends as subject matter for his work and is desperate for recognition in the art world.

JB is a visual artist from Haiti who specialises in portraiture and photography.

Willem is Jude’s closest friend and he eventually becomes his partner, in later years. Beginning as an aspiring actor who waits tables on the side, Willem eventually becomes a successful and famous movie star. Willem grew up in Wyoming with parents who were ranchers, living alongside his brother, Hemming, who had cerebral palsy. Jude suffers from chronic pain in both his legs and his back and struggles to overcome the psychological trauma of a childhood scarred by sexual abuse. In his adult life, he is a brilliant and successful litigator in New York City, yet he has a mysterious past that remains undisclosed to his friendship group. Jude is protagonist of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life.

A little life description