Episode 24 - Hanya Yanagihara: The People in Trees - Part 3

In the final part of my Yanagihara trilogy from 2014, we continue to discuss her astonishing, unnerving debut The People in the Trees. ----more----Yanagihara begins by answering my question about whether her fiction sets out to astonish or unnerve. She continues by addressing at least some of the following:

• asking questions in art that she can't answer in life
• her (former) day job at Conde Nast Traveler
• about the advantages of a work-writing balance
• about the research needed to write The People in the Trees
• science and animal research
• Yanagihara's father and the evolution of science
• immigration and American science
• reactions from family and colleagues to The People in Trees
• 'I dont love the book either...'
• a preview of her next book, A Little Life

The interview ends with me gushing and the sounds of a hotel preparing for lunch. A new four part podcast about A Little Life will be released later this month.