The Great Believers - bookrastinating.com

Paperback, 750 pages

Published July 31, 2019 by Large Print Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-4328-6963-2

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 …

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.

7 editions

debby_joyblue reviewed The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Review of 'The Great Believers' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

[possibly 2+] I think if this had been significantly shorter (better edited and focused) it could have been a much better book. The Paris story line was largely unnecessary until the very last line of the book, which, surely, could have been handled a different way/sooner. I didn't form a strong interest in any of the characters, save Nora, who was incidental (especially if the Paris story line was cut). I could have mustered up more interest in Yale, possibly, had the book been focused on his story line (set in the mid- to late-80s, on the AIDS crisis in Chicago).

Chris Kara

rated it

June 9