Yale Tishman is one of the many friends of Nico who have gathered to honor his memory at a small party. At the same time, not far from there, the official funeral is being held in a church, organized by the family, who have made it clear that his friends are not welcome. It’s Chicago, it’s 1985, and those friends are gay. In other times, perhaps, Yale would have had everything to be happy: a stable relationship, a close-knit group of friends, and a promising career. However, it’s Chicago, it’s 1985, and AIDS is wreaking havoc: one by one, his friends fall ill, and each day the virus tightens its grip around Yale. Soon, he will only be able to rely on Nico’s younger sister, Fiona. Three decades later, Fiona is in Paris, trying to locate her daughter, who turned her back on her years ago and disappeared. Staying at the home of an old friend, Fiona still struggles with the devastating aftermath that that terrible time had on her life and her relationship with her daughter. Interweaving the stories of Yale and Fiona, Rebecca Makkai offers us a powerful novel that reflects on illness and death, but above all on the power of life, love, and friendship. The Optimists faithfully recreates the daily life of the gay community in the eighties, the paradoxical atmosphere of vitality and hope for the freedoms gained, and of uncertainty and fear in a time when a positive test was equivalent to a death sentence. Brutal and moving, this novel portrays with great humanity optimistic people who, even in the midst of the most dreadful disaster, continue to believe in goodness.

“An absorbing and emotionally captivating story about what it means to live in times of crisis.”
Michael Cunningham, The New York Times Book Review