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A Little Life

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A Little Life

By: Hanya Yanagihara
Narrated by: Matt Bomer
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About this listen

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking audiobook of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.

When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome - but that will define his life forever.

©2025 Hanya Yanagihara (P)2025 Macmillan Australia Audio Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Urban Emotionally Gripping
All stars
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I read the book and audio at the same time, and it made it feel more real. This book has to be the most heartbreaking book I have ever read, it's full of despair, depression and sadness with some sprinkles of happy times. It is so beautifully written that it's almost like you've watched their whole lives like a movie and you have also lost them. I loved this book, but I feel it's also a book I wouldn't recommend to anyone it's that sad.

1 thing I would have liked more to read is if we got more of Jude’s life when he was in college with his friends, more so of how met and got along.

And as much as I loved this book I do not have it in me to ever read it again. 😭

A Little Life. 6/5 ⭐ Stars

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I’ve just finished A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (audio book read by Matt Bomer).
Man that was tough. What a beautifully written, tragically sad story. It will take me a while to process.
Highly recommended.

The perfect meeting point of pain, love, trust and tragedy.

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It just kept getting sadder. 5 stars because it was written beautifully and Matt Bomer has a great voice.

Devastating

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sitting here rn crying my eyes out and i rarely ever cry. if you want to absolutely be kicked in the stomach over and over, would recommend

10/10

absolutely broken my heart

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Wow, one of the most beautiful works of literature I have encountered. Albeit sad, albeit challenging to listen to, this story is one of the most power writings.
Confronting yet beautiful

Confronting, yet beautiful

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Such a well written story, so deeply sad but such good insight to deep pain and its effects.

Amazing character study

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The prose, the reader, the story, the character development, the relationships, the love, the tragedy. Everything was so devastatingly sad, yet massively overwhelmingly beautiful and human and hopeful. The only way it could end, in the end. The most engaging, mystifying and impactful book I have ever read. A masterpiece.

Life changing

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It was life in a glance. My heart aches for Jude. thanks Hanya for this great book.

Great book

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Beautifully written story that reminds you how much easier it is to believe the bad & not the good. Bad things happen to good people. Not everyone gets a fairytale. The writing of different character perspectives is amazing. It weaves through years, of a life seamlessly. A life of this much pain is hard to imagine, this book portrays it so intensely.

The Intensity

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Despite being overly...unkind and unfair and often times engaging in deep misery to the point of comedy, I find this an intriguing read. Even though the author does not believe in psychotherapy and that sometimes broken people should be allowed to die, I see this as a version or reality that can befall on some people. Not alot of people...but perhaps a few unfortunate folks that just have to experience the universe at its worst.


There were times were I was questioning the true magnetite of the level of suffering...but I do think this is a good read.

But I am a still believer that the people you love and the world you make, will still put up a fantastic fight of saving you. And your little life, will work out.

Until the universe wills you to die, you should live and kick and scream.

A truly exhausting and depressive read.

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