Hanna Thomas Uose
At a glance
This title is currently published in the UK only. The Aardvark edition represents the first North American print run!
What happens to loving each other forever when your soulmate decides living forever is more important?
Yuki and Sam are soulmates.
They are destined to spend the rest of their lives together.
They are supposed to love one another, forever.
But when a miracle drug is created which can extend a human's life, indefinitely, Sam decides to live forever, rather than love Yuki forever.
What comes next is a time-bending, decades-long, world-building epic set across the globe and narrated by an intersecting cast of characters. Who Wants to Live Forever is the greatest romance you will ever read without the happily ever after.
"I have devoured this novel. Not just a genius concept, this is a beautifully written book with characters so real that by the end you’ll swear you’d really met them. A brilliant debut."
- Louise Hare, Author of This Lovely City
"Who Wants to Live Forever is a deeply affecting novel about timing, family, desire, the fetishization of youth, the pursuit of greatness, and what we might be willing to sacrifice along the way. Hanna Thomas Uose has created a fully realized future; like the best speculative fiction, this novel holds a magnifying glass to familiar horrors: climate change, the evils of the pharmaceutical industry, international politics, and class disparities. But she’s also created memorable flesh and blood characters around this philosophical debate of eternity; their love and their losses will stick with me for, well, forever.’"
- Katie Yee, author of Maggie: Or, A Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar
"Who Wants To Live Forever probes and searches, like the best fiction does, without necessarily providing answers to the questions it asks. What gives a human life value? Does more time on this earth actually equate to more happiness? What even is happiness? This is a novel of love and of ambition, of regrets and of acceptance, written by a writer in possession of a keen insight and a powerful empathy. Highly compelling."
- Ian Russell-Hsieh, Author of I’m New Here
2039, Tokyo, March
March had only just begun – the cherry trees blossomed early now – and the sun shone white hot. Yuki was sitting in bed, propped up by a large pillow. Her eyelids fluttered. Each time they opened, she was astonished by the pinkness of it all. Through the window, pale petals drifted across the hazy azure of the sky and flitted in the clouds of leafing trees.
Her friends would be gathering soon to drink cool rice wine and eat sakura mochi beneath the flowers, pink-faced and laughing the same high-pitched cry as the white-eyed birds and bush warblers. Yuki hated to miss the party. Instead, the shrimp tempura her father had brought sat cold and askew on her lap. Jun would eat the leftovers, no doubt.
Rousing herself, she sipped on her warm tea and watched Midori leap through the air to catch a gliding petal in her hand. Yuki thought of Sam then – as she often did – and his face when she said she could feel her body as it aged, could feel her heart atrophy and brain cells burst. But, she understood now, that wasn’t how it felt at all. It was more like being blown away on a breeze.
We’ve reached peak youth culture. Desperation crackles in the air, with panicked millennials shelling out thousands for increased skin elasticity, anything to tug back on the sharp pull of aging. And in this frantic moment, Who Wants to Live Forever asks its readers: how far would you go to stay young? Would you sacrifice your morals, your money, your fertility, your personal relationships?
So, reader: would you?
The novel revolves around the discovery and subsequent rollout of Yareta, a miracle drug that prolongs human lifespans indefinitely. Frank, Yareta’s CEO and founder, claims, “I don’t fear death…I just love life.” But which is it, really? A lust for living or just plain old existential terror?
We stumbled across this hidden gem of a novel, which was published earlier this year in the UK but has yet to be picked up by a North American publisher, and right away knew we had to offer it to our members. Who Wants to Live Forever is whip smart and beautifully written, with themes that feel both contemporary and prescient: the ethics of youth culture and aging, the way the wellness industrial complex is tangled up with gender and class. After all, the longer you live, the more wealth you’ll accumulate, and yet only the rich are able to access Yareta in the first place. Time in the novel moves in weird, looping ways, dilating and contracting and losing its significance altogether—much like it might for someone living for hundreds of years.
Pick this one up if you want something political, philosophical, and a sci-fi page turner, all rolled into one.
