CĂTRE PARADIS. Hanya Yanagihara

Hanya Yanagihara’s Către paradis explores love, loss, and freedom. It shows three versions of America. This three-part novel spans an imagined past and a harsh future.

In 1893, New York belongs to the Free States. People there seem free to choose how they live and love. A frail young man from a leading family resists a rich suitor. He feels drawn to a charming, poor music teacher instead.

In 1993, AIDS grips Manhattan. A young Hawaiian man lives with his older, richer partner. He hides his troubled past as a child. He also hides what happened to his father.

In 2093, pandemics shape daily life. So does totalitarian rule, which gives the state full control. A famous scientist has a granddaughter. She must learn to live without him. Her husband vanishes time and again. She seeks to learn why.

The novel links illness and costly cures with wealth and poverty. It also ties them to race and power. It asks what family and nationality mean. It asks the same of inheritance and self-rule. It probes how rulers and rebels defend the harm they cause. Love and belonging guide the first two parts. In the third, fear takes hold. In all three, people seek a perfect home they cannot reach. They try to shield loved ones and face grief when they fail.

Adriana Badescu translated the novel from English. Its English title is To Paradise.