A Little Life
American novelist, born 1974.
A Little Life is a 2015 novel by Hanya Yanagihara. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015.
In LGBTQ+
On 6 of the 15 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Hanya Yanagihara
- First published
- 2015
- Length
- 736 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Booker Prize shortlist, 2015
- National Book Award for Fiction shortlist, 2015
- Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist, 2016
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Psychological, LGBTQ+
Is A Little Life worth reading?
6 of the 15 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Booker Prize (winners and shortlists) (Booker Prize Foundation, 2015) | Shortlist | See the list |
| National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists) (National Book Foundation, 2015) | Shortlist | See the list |
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 93 | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The Guardian, 2019) | No. 96 | See the list |
| Waterstones Book of the Year (winners and shortlists) (Waterstones, 2012-) | Shortlist | See the list |
| Women's Prize for Fiction (winners and shortlists) (Women's Prize Trust, 2016) | Shortlist | See the list |
Best edition of A Little Life
The edition we link to is the Picador paperback (2017), 736 pages.
- Publisher
- Picador (paperback, 2017)
- Pages
- 736
- ISBN
- 9781447294832
How critics, prizes and readers rate A Little Life
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 40% of the points available on prize lists, against 33% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 18% on critics' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like A Little Life
If you liked A Little Life, try The Line of Beauty, The Green Road or Fingersmith.
