When A Little Life (Lumen) was published in Spain almost ten years ago, in 2016, it was not a huge success. It was read by regular readers, those (including me) who, when they see words like Booker Prize or National Book Award (not to mention Pulitzer) on the cover, start drooling like my dog waiting for her food bowl. The novel of more than 1,000 pages by the unknown Hanya Yanagihara appeared on more lists of the best books of 2016 (including ours) than on best-seller lists.
Nowadays, and for a year now, whatever list of best-selling novels you look at, between Blackwaters, Joël Dickers and Javier Castillos, you will see, unchanged month after month, the novel ‘A Little Life’. A longseller among bestsellers. Where does this revival come from, if there has been no film adaptation or Netflix series or, I don’t know, has Yanagihara been given the Nobel Prize? The key is in a reading diva: Dua Lipa.
On March 6, 2023, the London-born singer wrote an article in The Booker Price expressing her absolute admiration for the novel: “It was one of the first books where I openly cried after reading it. By the end I felt profoundly changed. I am not exaggerating when I say that this novel challenged everything I thought I knew about love and friendship. It is one of those books that stays with you forever.” After those words went viral, the first wave of readers arrived.
The second came from TikTok. This is undoubtedly the most interesting phenomenon. That a pop star boosts the sales of a book through a personal recommendation or because she appears with him in a photo is nothing new. But that thousands of anonymous readers do it by recording themselves crying profusely after finishing reading a book is something remarkable. In less than a year, the social network has been filled with booktokers (#Booktok) showing off their copy of ‘A Little Life’ while, with the usual mix of sincerity and TikTok overacting, they comment on it between sobs and tears.
There is a nice paradox in all this: a book of more than a thousand pages recommended without using words, only with a tearful tear. With a purely physical response, not an intellectual one. It happens a bit like the photo of Peter Hujar that illustrates the cover of the book: a man who seems to be suffering as much as the protagonists of the novel, but who is actually having a life-threatening orgasm. In the end, the saying seems to be true: a picture (of a reaction on social media) is worth a thousand words.
@jessicaisweird bitch IM TIRED. #alittlelife #book #whywouldyouwritethis ♬ Sadbooks enters audio – marnbooks
@kevy0h this book isnt for the faint of heart… im about to pass out 😭 #alittlelife #hanyayanagihara #booktok ♬ original sound – kevy
@allegracappuccini do NOT reccomend reading this on a very public train iykyk #alittlelife #littlelifereaction #publicfreekout #booktok #crying #sobbing #sadbook #goodbook #sister #jude ♬ Little Life – Cordelia
@stephanie___michelle Let’s not talk snot the huge gap in there bc I was mostly in a constant state of horrified #alittlelife #alittlelifebook #alittlelifenovel #booktok #hanyayanagihara #hanyayanagiharaalittlelife #booktok #bookreaction #bookreactions #readingreaction #alittlelifereadingvlog #alittlelifereview ♬ original sound – Steph 📚💖
@kierralewis75 #alittlelife #booktok #hanyayanagihara ♬ original sound – Kierra Lewis
