The Great Believers

By: Rebecca Makkai

Narrated by: Michael Crouch

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

A New York Times TOP 10 BOOK OF 2018

LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER

ALA CARNEGIE MEDAL WINNER

THE STONEWALL BOOK AWARD WINNER

Soon to Be a Major Television Event, optioned by Amy Poehler

“A page turner.... An absorbing and emotionally riveting story about what it’s like to live during times of crisis.” (The New York Times Book Review)

A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris, by the acclaimed author Rebecca Makkai.

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.

Named a Best Book of 2018 by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, The Seattle Times, Bustle, Newsday, AM New York, BookPage, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Lit Hub, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, New York Public Library, and Chicago Public Library.

©2018 Rebecca Makkai (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Makkai knits themes of loss, betrayal, friendship and survival into a powerful story of people struggling to keep their humanity in dire circumstances.” (People Magazine)

“Cultural revolutions of the past painfully reverberate in Rebecca Makkai’s deft third novel, The Great Believers, which captures both the devastation of the AIDS crisis in 1980s Chicago and the emotional aftershocks of those losses.” (Vogue)

"Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers is a page turner... among the first novels to chronicle the AIDS epidemic from its initial outbreak to the present - among the first to convey the terrors and tragedies of the epidemic’s early years as well as its course and repercussions...An absorbing and emotionally riveting story about what it’s like to live during times of crisis." (The New York Times Book Review)

TREMENDOUS!

Rebecca Makkai, with the help of Michael Crouch (narrator), has accomplished a truly beautiful thing here. This is one of those books that will never leave you, it will enter your heart & soul & remain with you forever. A book you’ll require a “mourning period” upon completion. A book so beautifully written & richly developed you’ll wish it never to end. For the characters to stay, to just stay & be with you forever. This book is a rare find. A masterpiece of character development unlike anything I’ve experienced before. It will leave you raw, and in awe. Much like Hanya Yanagihara’s “A Little Life”, but a little less depressing & tortured, a little.

I Loved This So Much

It's life and love and time, trauma and healing, so so so much! I listened to it twice in a row, and am about to start it again.

Unbelievable modern fiction that isn’t fiction

Wonderfully and beautifully written. A perfect follow-up or prequel to “A Little Life”.

A must read / listen.

Wonderful!

The story was compelling enough to keep me reading, certainly...but even better, it flooded me with different emotions toward the characters at different points in the book. As things kept happening to the characters and their perspectives changed, how I felt about them changed. It was also an eye-opener about the start of the AIDS epidemic in the early 80s. I was around at the time, but only a child and too young to understand. This narrator was FANTASTIC! I’m a narrator snob, but I don’t think he mispronounced a single syllable. His voice was pleasant and he did slightly different voices for most of the characters, but none of them felt forced or sounded odd. Definitely get this book!

1980s

This book did a wonderful job of bringing back a time of joy and pain. It brought it all to light with stories of a group of delightful characters in the gay community and their battle with AIDS. Somehow it manages to be happy and sad all wrapped into one. I was sorry to see it end.

your heart will crack and shatter gently. A must

don't give up on this book, even if it's a little slow and timid at first.
You will find yourself drawn to an era you didn't know anything about, in love with all of the main characters and finally heartbroken.
Michael Crouch does an amazing job narrating this book and bringing his characters alive.
The novel's tales will make small cracks in your heart and shatter it gently.
A book about love, politics, being young, being an artist and being alive.
A must read.

A Story that Stays With You

This is one of those books that you keep thinking about long after finishing it. The characters, their ups and downs, the meaning of it all and how meaningless our problems today seem. This book shifts ahead from the devastating numbers connected to the AIDS epedemic to the stories of those impacted by it. By experiencing it with them you begin to feel the layered depth of their tragedy; not just the men who died but those who were left behind. A must-read.

wonderful engaging read

I found myself taking about this book to everyone. I was fully enthralled in this story. A great story about the AIDs epidemic and it's lasting imprint on the loves of those who survived.

One of the best books I've read in a while!

By the end you feel like you are part of Yale and Fiona's family. I never wanted it to end and missed them when it was over. Excellent writing and narration plus a beautiful & heartbreaking story.

loved it

When I read the book I liked it when I listened to it after I had already read it I loved it