Author Guide · Literary Fiction
Books Written by
Hanya Yanagihara has published three novels in nine years, and she wrote all of them while holding a full-time job in magazines: first at Condé Nast Traveler, then at T: The New York Times Style Magazine, which she ran as editor-in-chief from 2017. Her second novel, A Little Life (2015), a book of more than 700 pages about four friends in New York, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Kirkus Prize. Her third, To Paradise (2022), went to number one on The New York Times best-seller list. This guide covers her three key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 3 key books · 2013–2022 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Hanya Yanagihara has written three novels: The People in the Trees (2013), A Little Life (2015) and To Paradise (2022). Start with A Little Life, her best-known book and the winner of the 2015 Kirkus Prize for fiction. Below: what each novel is about, a content note, and the stage adaptation.
Where to Start with Hanya Yanagihara
If you want her defining book
→ A Little Life (2015) — the 2015 novel about four friends in New York.
If you want a story told across three centuries
→ To Paradise (2022) — one American story in 1893, 1993 and 2093.
If you want her debut
→ The People in the Trees (2013) — a scientist, a remote island and a discovery that ruins it.
3 Hanya Yanagihara Books, in Order
The People in the Trees
Her debut is presented as the memoir of Norton Perina, a doctor who, on a remote Pacific island, finds a tribe whose members live far beyond a normal lifespan, and whose discovery brings him a Nobel Prize and destroys the island’s way of life. The novel is partly based on the real case of the virologist Daniel Carleton Gajdusek. It was praised as one of the best novels of 2013. Content note: the novel deals with abuse.
A Little Life
Four friends from a small college in Massachusetts move to New York to build their lives: Willem, an actor; JB, a painter; Malcolm, an architect; and Jude St. Francis, a lawyer whose past slowly becomes the centre of the book, which follows them over some three decades. It was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize and the 2016 Women’s Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award. Ivo van Hove’s stage adaptation premiered in Amsterdam in 2018 and ran at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London in 2023. Content note: the novel deals with abuse and self-harm.
To Paradise
Three linked stories set in New York and Hawaii, in 1893, 1993 and 2093. The first takes place in an alternative America where same-sex marriage is legal; the second in Manhattan during the AIDS epidemic; the third in a city run by a totalitarian state after a series of pandemics. The same names, a house on Washington Square and the idea of a paradise recur across all three. Published in January 2022, it reached number one on The New York Times best-seller list.
In What Order to Read Hanya Yanagihara
The three novels are separate books with no shared characters, so you can read them in any order. Publication order shows a writer who gets more ambitious about scale each time: one man’s life, then four friends over three decades, then three centuries.
Most readers start with A Little Life. If you want to know her style before committing to more than 700 pages and a difficult subject, start with The People in the Trees, which is shorter.
A reading path
1. A Little Life (2015)
2. The People in the Trees (2013)
3. To Paradise (2022)
The years · 1974–2026
Quick facts about Hanya Yanagihara
- Known for
- Long, intense novels about friendship, families and damage, above all A Little Life, written alongside a career as a magazine editor.
- 1974
- Born in Los Angeles
- 2015
- A Little Life
- 2026
- Announces she will step down at T
- Born
- 1974, Los Angeles; she grew up in Hawaii, New York, Maryland, California and Texas
- Family
- Japanese descent through her father, a hematologist from Hawaii; Korean through her mother, born in Seoul
- Education
- Smith College, 1995
- Magazines
- Condé Nast Traveler; T: The New York Times Style Magazine, editor-in-chief from 2017
- Prizes
- Kirkus Prize for fiction (2015) for A Little Life
- On stage
- A Little Life, directed by Ivo van Hove, Amsterdam 2018 and London 2023
The red mark is 2015: A Little Life, her Booker-shortlisted second novel.
How Hanya Yanagihara Writes: Everything Turned Up High
Yanagihara has never been a full-time novelist. After graduating from Smith College in 1995 she worked as a publicist in New York, then as a writer and editor at Condé Nast Traveler, and she wrote To Paradise while running T magazine. Asked about writing fiction around an editing job, she has said: “I’ve never done it any other way.”
Her novels are long and deliberately intense. A Little Life has few dates or pop-culture references, so the time it is set in is hard to pin down, and it keeps the focus on the inner lives of its four friends rather than on the city around them. She has described writing it at its best as “glorious as surfing; it felt like being carried aloft on something I couldn’t conjure.”
She often starts from real history and bends it. The People in the Trees takes the case of the virologist Daniel Carleton Gajdusek as its starting point; To Paradise rewrites American history, imagining a New York of 1893 where same-sex marriage is legal, then follows the same names and the same house across two more centuries.
Frequently asked questions about Hanya Yanagihara’s books
How many books has Hanya Yanagihara written?
Three novels: The People in the Trees (2013), A Little Life (2015) and To Paradise (2022). All three are on this page.
What are Hanya Yanagihara’s books in order?
The People in the Trees (2013), A Little Life (2015) and To Paradise (2022).
Where should I start with Hanya Yanagihara?
A Little Life, her best-known novel. Be aware that it deals with abuse and self-harm. If you would rather start with something shorter, read The People in the Trees.
What is Hanya Yanagihara’s most famous book?
A Little Life (2015). It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award in 2015, won the 2015 Kirkus Prize for fiction, and was shortlisted for the 2016 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award.
Is A Little Life a true story?
No. It is a novel about four fictional friends in New York. Her debut, The People in the Trees, is the one that draws on a real case, that of the virologist Daniel Carleton Gajdusek.
Has A Little Life been adapted?
Yes, for the stage. Ivo van Hove directed an adaptation that premiered in Amsterdam in 2018, and a production ran at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London in 2023.
Are To Paradise and A Little Life connected?
No. To Paradise is a separate novel in three parts, set in 1893, 1993 and 2093. The three parts are linked to each other by recurring names and a house on Washington Square, not to A Little Life.
Have Hanya Yanagihara’s books been banned?
In January 2025 Belarus added A Little Life and To Paradise to its official list of publications that “could harm the national interests” of the country, banning their distribution there.
Does Hanya Yanagihara still edit T magazine?
She became editor-in-chief of T: The New York Times Style Magazine in 2017 and announced in 2026 that she would step down.
Footnotes
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I wanted everything turned up a little too high.”
— Hanya Yanagihara, on A Little Life, interview with Tim Adams, The Observer (2015)
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