A Little Life — Hanya Yanagihara (2015)

Its 720-page narrative follows four friends from college through middle age, centering on Jude, a survivor of extraordinary childhood abuse rendered with unflinching precision. The novel sparked fierce debate—praised for its ambition yet criticized for perceived exploitation—and became the most talked-about American literary novel since Franzen's *Freedom*, selling over 1.5 million copies in the US alone.