A dazzling novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister.
Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.
A dazzling novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister.
Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.
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Find The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
3 books in catalog
Prose narratives examining historical crisis, personal memory, and societal institutions have defined a major strand of contemporary American fiction, notably through acclaimed novels such as The Great Believers. Author Rebecca Makkai crafts intricate stories that connect past tragedies to present-day realities, examining community resilience and individual responsibility.
Born on April 20, 1978, Makkai earned a Master of Arts in literature from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English in 2004. She initially began her writing career while working as an elementary Montessori teacher before transitioning to full-time writing and teaching at the university level. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, she serves as the Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago and teaches graduate fiction writing at Middlebury College, Northwestern University, and the Bennington Writing Seminars.
Makkai's narratives often weave together parallel timelines and complex character networks to explore themes of grief, art, systemic injustice, and moral responsibility. Her works, which have been translated into more than twenty languages, frequently examine how historical moments—such as the 1980s AIDS crisis or past institutional scandals—reverberate through decades of individual lives.
3 books in catalog
Prose narratives examining historical crisis, personal memory, and societal institutions have defined a major strand of contemporary American fiction, notably through acclaimed novels such as The Great Believers. Author Rebecca Makkai crafts intricate stories that connect past tragedies to present-day realities, examining community resilience and individual responsibility.
Born on April 20, 1978, Makkai earned a Master of Arts in literature from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English in 2004. She initially began her writing career while working as an elementary Montessori teacher before transitioning to full-time writing and teaching at the university level. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, she serves as the Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago and teaches graduate fiction writing at Middlebury College, Northwestern University, and the Bennington Writing Seminars.
Makkai's narratives often weave together parallel timelines and complex character networks to explore themes of grief, art, systemic injustice, and moral responsibility. Her works, which have been translated into more than twenty languages, frequently examine how historical moments—such as the 1980s AIDS crisis or past institutional scandals—reverberate through decades of individual lives.
