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A Little Life cover art

A Little Life

By: Hanya Yanagihara
Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
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Publisher's Summary

'I'm not exaggerating when I say this novel challenged everything I thought I knew about love and friendship. It's one of those books that stays with you forever.' – Dua Lipa

The million-copy bestseller, Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life, by the author of To Paradise, is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.


Winner of Fiction of the Year at the British Book Awards
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize
Finalist for the US National Book Award for Fiction

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cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity.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.

'Yanagihara takes you so deeply into the lives and minds of these characters that you struggle to leave them behind.' – The Times

©2015 Hanya Yanagihara (P)2015 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

Critic Reviews

"In person Yanagihara is breezily intellectual; all bright red lipstick, sparkly jewellery and cobalt-blue heels. And yet A Little Life has at its heart a darkness so profound you wonder both where it came from and how she mustered the courage to confront it…She is, she says, very much the sort of person who walks past strangely located doors or evocatively seedy windows and immediately wonders what lives exist behind them. For Yanagihara, you feel, they’re more likely to be damaged than not." (Alison Roberts, Evening Standard)

What listeners say about A Little Life

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  • Bec
  • 18-02-2016

Wonderful performance and book

I loved Oliver Wyman's narration of this profoundly human story. His characters were complex and consistent and perfect to my ears.
The story itself, harrowing, sad, funny occasionally, but mostly very very human. I loved every minute of it.

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Hard to "put down".

Loved it.
Totally immersed in the characters. Sad. Confronting content.
Very well read.
Highly recommended but content is sensitive.

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Outstanding

One of the most memorable and wonderful narratives I've ever read (heard) the story is exceptional and the characters will remain with me forever

The narrator is wonderful

Cannot recommend this enough

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a gift

heartbreaking, gruelling and epic.
a roller-coaster of emotions. I feel privileged to have read such a story.

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Excellent writing of absolutely obscene trauma

Narration - took me a little to warm up to but couldn’t imagine a better voice in the end
Writing - beautiful. Yanagihara has a true talent in making anything she writes about incredibly captivating. There is a comforting rhythm to her sentences that encourage you to read and read and read.
Content - there is no trigger warning for this book but please heed this warning. This book dives into the most appalling forms of abuse imaginable and it does not let up. Obscene trauma awaits and is not for anyone who could potentially struggle reading about s*xual abuse

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A little long but so worth it.

It took a bit to get my head around the story and figure out the central character, but when I did my god. I was attached and absolutely invested in Jude’s story. I was bawling in my car listening many times. A little drawn out at times but I’m so glad I persevered.

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incredible

a truly beautiful story

does inspire me to write a book myself

highly recommend

great voice performance

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speechless

Utterly guttered to have finished quite possibly the longest yet most delicately written book. it brings out the deepest insight into the human condition and that our actions create such a vast ripple effect. I couldn't recommend this any more.

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Heartbreakingly life changing

An absolute masterpiece. Such a talented author. A raw and mind altering depiction of trauma and friendship. Truely beautiful.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Only for the emotionally mature.

This book takes you on a roller coaster of emotions.
At first I thought I had wasted my mo that credit. The first few chapters are arduous and hard to follow.
But I have it another chance and I’m so glad that I did.
I have suffered from clinical depression from the age of 17 and this book perfectly portrays the emotions and suffering of a broken depressed mind.
This book is not for those who have not felt or endured the suffering that a person can live. Love, loss, bullying, physical and sexual abuse, mundaneness of work, socializing and letting your guard down to love after you have been so totally destroyed by other humans.
Not for the privileged.
Jude, you will forever be in heart.

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