--- product_id: 262219070 title: "A Little Life" price: "£22.46" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/262219070-a-little-life store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # A Little Life **Price:** £22.46 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** A Little Life - **How much does it cost?** £22.46 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/262219070-a-little-life) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A stunning "portrait of the enduring grace of friendship" ( NPR ) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST - MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST - WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates--broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition--as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara's stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Review: One of the finest novels I've read - Quite possibly one of the finest novels I've had the pleasure of reading. Epic, devastating, enduring, challenging, deeply moving. Such confident prose that unravels the innermost thoughts of these beautifully-drawn characters while also achieving an acute sense of sonder; and also written with admirable, aching restraint of deeply challenging and confronting topics; the effects of which I feel will be impressed upon me for a long time. I've come away thinking of the astonishing depths of depravity of humanity (and especially reading this in the context of the Epstein files which is desperately resonant) but more significantly of the enduring power of human companionship and kindness, with the nuance that you must extend kindness to yourself if you find that, after all, sometimes kindness isn't enough. Don't be intimidated by its length; if anything, I almost wished it was longer with how attached I became to the characters! The pacing, developments, and revelations unfold with care, confidence, and with seeds whose significance produce immense emotional power in time, and you will be rewarded for it. Highly recommend. Review: A Moving and Memorable Book - I first discovered Yanagihara through her divisive first novel The People in the Trees. I found the story it told to be a grim yet fascinating one and when I heard about A Little Life I immediately wanted to read it. I ordered a paperback (I'm not a lover of hardbacks) from the States and waited with barely contained anticipation for it to arrive. The book follows the life of four best friends all the way from college to their later adult lives. The first third of the book is equally split between the four as they struggle through the years after college and look to forge their way in life. JB is an artist with a number of personal issues, Willem a kindly aspiring actor, Malcolm an insecure architect and Jude, a brilliant yet damaged man, who could do many things yet decides on a life in law. Essentially Jude is the crux of this friendship as, owing to an utterly horrific youth, his friends rally round to protect him and support him through the disabilities and fragilities he acquired along the way. After a point the book begins to focus solely on the relationship between Willem and Jude and JB and Malcolm become, for the most part, peripheral characters. They are replaced by Harold and Julia, a man and wife who meet Jude while he is at college and grow extremely fond of him. Although this shift in direction disappointed me at first (I especially enjoyed reading about JB's life and his problems in the first section of the novel) I soon slipped into this new groove and quickly began to enjoy the new narrative possibilities this change created. As a result of these changes, the end of the book comes as no surprise to the reader but, nonetheless, I found it difficult to fight back the tears. A Little Life is similar in some regards, yet greatly different to, The People in the Trees. In A Little Life, Yanagihara again confronts many of the harsh and unpalatable traits of the human condition (child abuse, self-harming, graphic violence) that turned many readers away from her first novel. However, many of the characters she writes about here display an abundance of enviable human qualities - patience, love, loyalty - that were sorely lacking in the ones she created for The People in the Trees. This book evokes strong emotion - just like People in The Trees did - but this time those emotions are more favourable than the utter contempt and disgust I felt towards the protagonists of her first novel. I won't lie, the book almost had me on the verge of tears a number of times and I'm usually a hard and unfeeling person. From the reviews I've read, many people found the book forced and schmaltzy but I found it genuinely affecting - perhaps I am getting soft in my old age. Yanagihara writes so cleverly and touchingly of the men's friendship that it genuinely helped me create a brilliantly vivid image of the friends in my mind's eye; an image which stayed with me throughout the entirety of the book. I was also able to strongly connect with the feelings of many of the characters within its pages and perhaps this helped me appreciate and enjoy them more than other readers were able. Sure, the book is long and can at times be repetitious, and in it Yanagihara has a tendency to reuse words too closely together (over and over, cried and cried, struggled and struggled, argued and argued, etc) but for me, strangely, the very mundanity of the book is one of its most endearing traits. Real-life friendships are often valued on how comfortable companions feel around each other through the more tedious aspects of our co-existence and I think Yanagihara conveyed these uninspiring moments with such skill that they became enjoyable. I will admit that there is a level of over sentimentality present, especially concerning Jude, which I can understand will turn some people off. And, speaking of Jude, his unwavering self-loathing and total inability to even begin to accept his friends' feelings about him did grate occasionally but, overall, these elements rarely bothered me that much. Although the book was long I never found it a chore and I devoured huge chunks of it in single sittings, something I always associate with powerful books that resonate with me. Before I wrap up, a warning to potential buyers: there are, just as in The People in the Trees, some very shocking scenes within this book's pages. There are graphic depictions of sexual abuse (some involving children) and brutal violence. Yanagihara does not shy away from these unpalatable acts and actions and her no holds barred approach to these scenes may rear discomfort or indeed disgust in some readers. There are also a number of intense scenes involving bodily disfigurement and self-harm that people with a queasy disposition might find repulsive and, as such, should bear this in mind when considering a purchase. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about reading it - despite A Little Life clocking in at over 800 pages long I was sorry for it to end. Hanya Yanagihara is an accomplished and emotive writer and she is quick becoming one of my favourite authors; I am excited to see what she produces in the future. For me this has been one of the most memorable, moving and engrossing books I've read in a long time. I'm off to check out the actual Man Booker Prize winner now as, if it managed to best this novel, it must be some book. ## Features - Warning:This toy does not provide protection - A Little Life ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | 302,294 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 9 in Coming of Age 87 in Literary Fiction (Books) 138 in Contemporary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 87,676 Reviews | ## Images ![A Little Life - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71If19m2RXL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of the finest novels I've read *by S***R on 4 March 2026* Quite possibly one of the finest novels I've had the pleasure of reading. Epic, devastating, enduring, challenging, deeply moving. Such confident prose that unravels the innermost thoughts of these beautifully-drawn characters while also achieving an acute sense of sonder; and also written with admirable, aching restraint of deeply challenging and confronting topics; the effects of which I feel will be impressed upon me for a long time. I've come away thinking of the astonishing depths of depravity of humanity (and especially reading this in the context of the Epstein files which is desperately resonant) but more significantly of the enduring power of human companionship and kindness, with the nuance that you must extend kindness to yourself if you find that, after all, sometimes kindness isn't enough. Don't be intimidated by its length; if anything, I almost wished it was longer with how attached I became to the characters! The pacing, developments, and revelations unfold with care, confidence, and with seeds whose significance produce immense emotional power in time, and you will be rewarded for it. Highly recommend. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Moving and Memorable Book *by H***S on 28 February 2016* I first discovered Yanagihara through her divisive first novel The People in the Trees. I found the story it told to be a grim yet fascinating one and when I heard about A Little Life I immediately wanted to read it. I ordered a paperback (I'm not a lover of hardbacks) from the States and waited with barely contained anticipation for it to arrive. The book follows the life of four best friends all the way from college to their later adult lives. The first third of the book is equally split between the four as they struggle through the years after college and look to forge their way in life. JB is an artist with a number of personal issues, Willem a kindly aspiring actor, Malcolm an insecure architect and Jude, a brilliant yet damaged man, who could do many things yet decides on a life in law. Essentially Jude is the crux of this friendship as, owing to an utterly horrific youth, his friends rally round to protect him and support him through the disabilities and fragilities he acquired along the way. After a point the book begins to focus solely on the relationship between Willem and Jude and JB and Malcolm become, for the most part, peripheral characters. They are replaced by Harold and Julia, a man and wife who meet Jude while he is at college and grow extremely fond of him. Although this shift in direction disappointed me at first (I especially enjoyed reading about JB's life and his problems in the first section of the novel) I soon slipped into this new groove and quickly began to enjoy the new narrative possibilities this change created. As a result of these changes, the end of the book comes as no surprise to the reader but, nonetheless, I found it difficult to fight back the tears. A Little Life is similar in some regards, yet greatly different to, The People in the Trees. In A Little Life, Yanagihara again confronts many of the harsh and unpalatable traits of the human condition (child abuse, self-harming, graphic violence) that turned many readers away from her first novel. However, many of the characters she writes about here display an abundance of enviable human qualities - patience, love, loyalty - that were sorely lacking in the ones she created for The People in the Trees. This book evokes strong emotion - just like People in The Trees did - but this time those emotions are more favourable than the utter contempt and disgust I felt towards the protagonists of her first novel. I won't lie, the book almost had me on the verge of tears a number of times and I'm usually a hard and unfeeling person. From the reviews I've read, many people found the book forced and schmaltzy but I found it genuinely affecting - perhaps I am getting soft in my old age. Yanagihara writes so cleverly and touchingly of the men's friendship that it genuinely helped me create a brilliantly vivid image of the friends in my mind's eye; an image which stayed with me throughout the entirety of the book. I was also able to strongly connect with the feelings of many of the characters within its pages and perhaps this helped me appreciate and enjoy them more than other readers were able. Sure, the book is long and can at times be repetitious, and in it Yanagihara has a tendency to reuse words too closely together (over and over, cried and cried, struggled and struggled, argued and argued, etc) but for me, strangely, the very mundanity of the book is one of its most endearing traits. Real-life friendships are often valued on how comfortable companions feel around each other through the more tedious aspects of our co-existence and I think Yanagihara conveyed these uninspiring moments with such skill that they became enjoyable. I will admit that there is a level of over sentimentality present, especially concerning Jude, which I can understand will turn some people off. And, speaking of Jude, his unwavering self-loathing and total inability to even begin to accept his friends' feelings about him did grate occasionally but, overall, these elements rarely bothered me that much. Although the book was long I never found it a chore and I devoured huge chunks of it in single sittings, something I always associate with powerful books that resonate with me. Before I wrap up, a warning to potential buyers: there are, just as in The People in the Trees, some very shocking scenes within this book's pages. There are graphic depictions of sexual abuse (some involving children) and brutal violence. Yanagihara does not shy away from these unpalatable acts and actions and her no holds barred approach to these scenes may rear discomfort or indeed disgust in some readers. There are also a number of intense scenes involving bodily disfigurement and self-harm that people with a queasy disposition might find repulsive and, as such, should bear this in mind when considering a purchase. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about reading it - despite A Little Life clocking in at over 800 pages long I was sorry for it to end. Hanya Yanagihara is an accomplished and emotive writer and she is quick becoming one of my favourite authors; I am excited to see what she produces in the future. For me this has been one of the most memorable, moving and engrossing books I've read in a long time. I'm off to check out the actual Man Booker Prize winner now as, if it managed to best this novel, it must be some book. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ An amazing story, but depressing, dark and extremely tough reading. *by G***S on 31 August 2025* There’s so many reviews of this novel, and it has been so widely critically acclaimed, that it is difficult to come up with anything new and a review almost seems pointless. I am no literature expert; I just say what I think without in depth analysis. Moreover, I tend to only write reviews when I have found a novel extremely good or very bad. If it was just “so-so” then I tend not to comment. For me, this was neither brilliant nor bad, but I do feel a need to comment. I have no doubt that this could have been one of the most magnificent stories that I had ever read; in parts it felt like that. There were periods of wonderfully rich writing, combined with moving story lines that I found engrossing. I can see why it is so critically acclaimed. Unfortunately, however, I found too many parts really hard going. There was a particular section, from about halfway through, that was extremely difficult reading, both in terms of the writing style, that became monotonous, and in terms of the narrative or action (or lack thereof). I get the deep and horrendous complexities being covered, but I very, very nearly discarded it; however, by that time, I was so far through I just felt that I must persevere. I was glad I did, because, although deeply upsetting the final few chapters were well worth the effort of getting through the tough parts. If I was to make a couple of specific criticisms, they would be that I found the shifting timeline hard to follow. I also did not like the technique of starting chapters by leaving the reader unaware of where we were in time and space and who the narrator was. This does not make writing great in my book; it is just annoying. I also wondered if someone could really self-harm to this extreme degree whilst still being able to hold down a hugely high-profile job, working ridiculous numbers of hours each day, sometimes barley sleeping, and perform apparently brilliantly in court. It stretched my imagination. I also marvelled at the proportion of gay people in the story. I know this sounds trite, but everyone’s brother seemed to have a boyfriend and everyone’s sister a girlfriend. This was an unfamiliar world. These are banal points, I realise that. But hey, we can all have our say. The last two things I want to say is that, in totality, this book is deeply depressing and upsetting. It happens that I read it at a time when my own mental health was not strong, occasioned by an ageing body and a life which began badly and was punctuated by mistakes and failures. Anyone in a similar position should avoid this novel. I cried a lot reading this. Secondly, I first bought a version of this book with the still image “Orgasmic Man” on the front cover. After a week of seeing this, I could stand it no longer and I had to turn to Amazon to buy this version as shown above. The images of what I take to be a representation of Lispenard Street are benign and evocative. Orgasmic Man is malignant and brutal, a bit like the story I suppose, and I get the paradox of orgasm and pain, but I still think such a cover was a very bad idea. ## Frequently Bought Together - A Little Life - The Handmaid's Tale - 1984: 75th Anniversary --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/262219070-a-little-life](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/262219070-a-little-life) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-05-19*