To Paradise

Hanya Yanigihara creates a vivid word, that while different in key ways from our own, is also remarkably similar. Within that world, she sets three novella length stories: one in a gilded age era past, one in the early 1990's and one in a dystopian future. The stories could be taken as stand-alones, but when taken together act as panels on a triptych.

There are so many reasons to love this book, but my top is the story of David Bingham, who lives in New York City with his older lover and who is secretly a descendant of Hawaiian royalty.

The book makes three big leaps in time, and David’s portion is set in the early nineties. As the AIDS crisis rips through their community, he privately tries to contend with the pain of being abandoned by his father, who left his family to join the Hawaiian independence movement.

When I set out to write my book, I wanted to write a contemporary… show more.