Sometimes I avoid picking up a book, even if I really want to read it. I’ll carry it to a coffee shop or I’ll bring it on a trip, but when it comes to actually reading it – I can’t bring myself to do it. This is exactly what happened with A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. This story is incredibly intense and emotional; I wasn’t sure I could handle it.

After years of avoiding it, I read A Little Life and it was more devastating than I could have believed.

Soon after Jude, Willem, JB and Malcom become roommates during their freshman year of college, they become best friends. They are inseparable for a time and move to New York as so many young people do. The book follows their lives and what has led them to New York. They are each extremely talented, even if not all of them believe it, as an artist, an architect, an actor and a lawyer. In some ways their lives are ordinary and in other ways, extraordinary.

When I told my mom about this book, she asked why I’m reading it. It’s a fair question. As heartbreaking as this story is, it’s also filled with hope, compassion and love. In a way, it’s a tribute to the perseverance of humankind in times of terribly tragedy.

A Little Life is one of the best books I’ve ever read and I highly recommend it, but know that it has an intensity (both positive and negative) like none other.