The Great Believers

WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL 2019

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS

A New York Times Top Ten Best Book of 2018

‘I loved this book’ Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup: bringing 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, he finds his partner is infected, and that he might even have the virus himself. 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 epidemic, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways the AIDS crisis affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. Yale and Fiona’s stories unfold in incredibly moving and sometimes surprising ways, as both struggle to find goodness in the face of disaster.

WINNER OF THE STONEWALL BOOK AWARD

A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK

A BUZZFEED BOOK OF THE YEAR