A bestselling novel that proves there are no barriers for space and time when life’s constants—love and betrayal, joy and loneliness, good and evil—enter the game.
Han Yanjikhara’s new novel, the author of world bestsellers “A Little Life” and “People Among Trees,” is a first-class example of intellectual prose that nevertheless can trigger a vivid emotional response.
We meet three heroes who are in no way connected, living in alternative America (specifically—at Washington Square in New York) in 1893, 1993, and 2093. A wealthy heir from an influential family is preparing to marry for reasons of convenience, but the further he goes, the more a genuine feeling takes hold of him—and this passion is about to destroy his steady, measured life. In 1993, a modest office worker tries to hide his origin from a Hawaiian royal line and painfully endures a painful relationship with his father. In 2093, the granddaughter of a famous scientist, left without her beloved grandfather, tries to find her place in an utopian world and cope with a terrible loss. Across the centuries, a mysterious connection links these people—and a shared desire: to find themselves. They are drawn to the vague image of paradise, for which each person is willing to risk everything they have.
“Until the End of Paradise” is a stylistically perfect novel that raises the most uncomfortable questions of our time.