Summary: <a href="http://bookbasedbanter.co.uk/youwrotethebook/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Hanya-Yanagihara-009.jpg"> </a>Hello and welcome back, after a short break, to the second series of You Wrote the Book, with Simon Savidge. Each fortnight Simon is joined by a special guest author to discuss their life as a writer and as a reader. Simon’s guest for this episode Hanya Yanagihara whose second novel A Little Life has had a huge reception over in America and is now getting a huge amount of discussion over here in the UK where it has also been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It starts as the tale of four men who become friends in college. Willem is an actor, JB a photographer, Malcolm an architect and Jude a lawyer. All these me are set to become successful yet all have a lot more going on than meets the eye and behind closed doors. However it is Jude who becomes the focus as the novel takes a darker turn looking into his background and the physical and mental effects which he is still dealing with now. It is a novel that looks at love, friendship, loss, pleasure, pain, hope, survival, failure and success. It is a book about class, sexuality and race. It is a book about what it means to be a human. It’s amazing, it is also brutal. Simon had the pleasure of meeting up with Hanya Yanagihara a few months ago to discuss A Little Life, male friendship, New York, things left unsaid, sexuality, pain, love and a whole lot more. He started by asking her to give us a little more insight into the four men at the start of the novel, well after having a small fan boy moment. Over the next few weeks Simon will be joined by Bethan Roberts, Paul McVeigh, Susan Barker, Val McDermid and David Whitehouse. If you have any questions for the authors, would like to suggest authors you think Simon should be getting on the show, or simply want to have a natter about books, you can email <a href="mailto:youwrotethebook@gmail.com">youwrotethebook@gmail.com</a> or find us on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/youwrotethebook">@youwrotethebook</a>. If you want to hear Simon talking more books do join him every other week with Thomas Otto on <a href="http://bookbasedbanter.co.uk/thereaders/">The Readers Podcast</a>, you can also find him chatting and reviewing book on his blog <a href="http://savidgereads.wordpress.com/">Savidge Reads</a>. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/you-wrote-the-book!/id620056636">on iTunes</a> where you can find previous episodes with Rose Tremain, Christos Tsiolkas, Evie Wyld, Armistead Maupin, David Nicholls, Joanne Harris, Richard Flanagan, Jessie Burton, Emily St John Mandel and many more.
