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A Little Life was published on 10 March 2015 and ran to 814 pages in its first American edition. It follows four friends in New York — a lawyer, an actor, an architect and a painter — across decades, and at its centre is Jude St. Francis, whose childhood abuse the book keeps returning to. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Kirkus Prize; it also divided critics so sharply that its editor wrote to the New York Review of Books to answer Daniel Mendelsohn’s review. Yanagihara, born in Los Angeles in 1974 and raised in Hawaii, followed it with To Paradise (2022), set in one Washington Square townhouse in 1893, 1993 and 2093. In 2026 she stepped down as editor of T, the New York Times style magazine. The ten writers below share her ground: friendship as family, damage that does not heal on schedule, and what love can and cannot repair.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Literary fiction · Friendship · Trauma · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Hanya Yanagihara, start with Donna Tartt, whose The Secret History (1992) is another long novel about a closed circle of friends. Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain won the Booker Prize in 2020 for a story of childhood damage, and Garth Greenwell writes shame and desire between men. Further down are the Henry James novel that started To Paradise, and a psychiatrist whose book on trauma makes a different argument about recovery.
10 authors like Hanya Yanagihara
Where to start if you loved Hanya Yanagihara
If you want another closed circle of friends, read Tartt.
The Secret History (1992) has the same immersive length and the same tight circle of friends.
If you want friendship over a lifetime, read Ferrante.
My Brilliant Friend (2011) begins a four-book story of two women across six decades.
If you want the same subjects in fewer pages, read Greenwell.
What Belongs to You (2016) is short, precise and as intense as anything in Yanagihara.
If you want to understand trauma, read Herman.
Trauma and Recovery (1992) laid the ground for the diagnosis of complex PTSD.
If you are new to Yanagihara herself, start with A Little Life.
Her best-known novel (2015); The People in the Trees (2013) is shorter, and To Paradise (2022) is the most ambitious.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Hanya Yanagihara
Who writes like Hanya Yanagihara?
Donna Tartt, Douglas Stuart and Garth Greenwell are the closest matches, with James Baldwin and Alan Hollinghurst among the writers of male friendship and desire.
What should I read after A Little Life?
Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (1992) for a closed circle of friends, or Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain (2020) for childhood damage.
Is Hanya Yanagihara like Donna Tartt?
Both write very long, immersive novels about small, closed groups of friends. Tartt builds hers around a secret; Yanagihara stays with the friendships over decades.
Which Hanya Yanagihara book should I read first?
A Little Life (2015), her best-known book; The People in the Trees (2013) is shorter if you want a gentler start.
What is The People in the Trees based on?
It is partly based on the real case of the virologist Daniel Carleton Gajdusek.
Does Hanya Yanagihara have a new book?
Her most recent novel is To Paradise (2022). In 2026 she stepped down as editor of T magazine.
Sources
- Hanya Yanagihara — Wikipedia
- A Little Life — Wikipedia
- To Paradise — Wikipedia
- Hanya Yanagihara leaves T — The Blueprint
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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