Picador lands A Little Life author Yanagihara's 'extraordinary' new novel

Picador has landed To Paradise, the “extraordinary” new novel by Hanya Yanagihara, six years after her previous book, A Little Life, became a global bestseller.

The Pan Mac imprint will publish in the UK on 11th January 2022 with Doubleday releasing it simultaneously in the US. Ravi Mirchandani, Picador editor-in-chief, acquired UK & Commonwealth rights rom Karolina Sutton at Curtis Brown, on behalf of Anna Stein at ICM Partners in New York.

A Little Life (Picador), the New York City-based author's 2015 book, was shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and Women's Prize. Through Nielsen BookScan it has sold 245,557 UK print copies across all editions, for £1.9m.

The new book is billed as “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”.

Its synopsis explains: “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.”

Picador said the three sections of the book were joined together in “an enthralling and ingenious symphony as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another”.

Mirchandani commented: “We at Picador are delighted to be publishing Hanya's extraordinary new novel, an immensely powerful fictional exploration of the issue of who paradise is for − for any idea of paradise crucially also involves an idea of who must be excluded from it. It is very much a novel about the soul, the past and the future, of the United States. But, at a time when political issues of diversity and inclusion engage us as much as those of whom we wish to − or should − exclude from our homes, our public places and our nation-states, it engages with issues of race and sexuality, imperialism and disease that are central to all our lives, wherever in the world we happen to live. And, like A Little Life, it is not only a novel of ideas, but one of plot and of character, as deeply moving and powerfully propulsive as it is haunting and thought-provoking. I am in awe of Hanya's achievement in writing this novel; we are very proud indeed to be publishing it.”