Publisher's Synopsis
En la Lista de Lecturas de Barack Obama para el Verano de 2022
2.500.000 DE LECTORES VOLVERÁN A EMOCIONARSE
NÚMERO UNO EN VENTAS EN THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tras Tan poca vida -&«un fenómeno digno de estudio» (La Razón), Mejor Libro del Año según más de 15 medios-, la nueva novela de una autora &«con una capacidad deslumbrante para atrapar desde las tripas en una lectura febril» (El Mundo)
UNO DE LOS LIBROS MÁS ESPERADOS DEL AÑO SEGÚN THE GUARDIAN, THE TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE TELEGRAPH, THE DAILY MAIL, FINANTIAL TIMES Y THE IRISH TIMES
&«Al paraìso es tan buena como Guerra y paz». -Edmund White
En una versión alternativa de la América de 1893, Nueva York forma parte de los Estados Libres, donde el matrimonio homosexual está permitido. Un muchacho de familia distinguida se debate entre casarse con un pretendiente elegido por su abuelo o escoger a un profesor de música con pocos recursos de quien está enamorado. En un Manhattan de 1993 asediado por &«la enfermedad», un joven hawaiano vive con su pareja, cuya edad e ingresos superan con creces los suyos, y le oculta su infancia problemática y el destino de su padre. Y en 2093, en un mundo asolado por plagas y gobernado por un estado totalitario, un poderoso cientìfico y su familia intentan encontrar las estrategias necesarias para sobrevivir sin perderse unos a otros por el camino.
Como en una sinfonìa fascinante e ingeniosa, estas tres partes conforman una novela monumental, histórica y distópica en la que el amor parece imposible y, sin embargo, los protagonistas, con sus limitaciones y secretos, se obstinan en buscarlo como único modo de llegar al paraìso.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Included in Barack Obama's Summer Reading List 2022
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER From the author of the classic A Little Life-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.
In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist's damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him-and solve the mystery of her husband's disappearances.
These three sections are joined in an enthralling and ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can't exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness.
To Paradise is a findesiecle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. 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.
