A Trivial Life (Volumes I and II)

Four college friends venture to New York after graduation,
where they thrive and experience both sorrow and joy in this vibrant world...

From the prime of youth to life's final act, in the deepest black hole of existence,
haunting memories are sound-absorbing springs, and friendship is the only light from above, a lifeline lowered down.

"Childhood, our gaze falls on the world once; all else is memory." ── American poet Louise Glück

Four college classmates from a small university in Massachusetts move to New York to make their way. They are broke and adrift, sustained only by their friendship and ambition. There's kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; astute, sometimes cruel JB, a painter striving to make a name in the art world; confused Malcolm, an architect working at a renowned firm; and the introverted, brilliant, and enigmatic Jude, who becomes the anchor of the four.

Over decades, their friendship deepens and darkens, influenced by drug addiction, success, and arrogance. But each of them gradually realizes that their greatest challenge is Jude himself. By middle age, he becomes a brilliant lawyer, yet increasingly fractured, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable, horrifying childhood. The trauma from those years relentlessly hounds him—he fears its severity is such that he cannot overcome it and will forever be defined by it.

This is a brilliant novel, full of wisdom and emotion. Hanya Yanagihara masterfully depicts a sorrowful story, offering a dark and unforgettable exploration of the tyrannical power of experience and memory.