Hanya Yanagihara, author of the highly acclaimed and modern- day classic A Little Life, comes to BAM for the launch of To Paradise. A bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, To Paradise is about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia. Yanagihara will be joined in conversation by Dean Baquet, Executive Editor of The New York Times. A book signing with Yanagihara will follow.

In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him—and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances. To Paradise is a fin de siècle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius.