The Great Believers
By Rebecca Makkai
Penguin Publishing Group
This book was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2018, and there’s good reason. I couldn’t put it down. Taking place in both the mid-1980s and 2015, it follows Chicago’s gay community through the early days of the AIDS crisis, and the sister of one of the early casualties of that time 30 years later. That character, Fiona, lost so much during that time, which created even greater loss in the ensuing years. Yet everything comes full circle. Tear-jerking, but so well written and so much depth into that community that had not been well-documented to this point.