How long does it take to read A Little Life?
Hanya Yanagihara
At an average reading speed of 250 words a minute, A Little Life takes about 20 hours to read. The unabridged audiobook runs 33 hours at 1x, or 22 hours at 1.5x.
A Little Life is the longest modern novel in our study by a wide margin, about the length of Middlemarch. It's also heavy going for reasons that have nothing to do with length, and many readers take it in shorter sittings than they'd give another book this size.
Average is about 250 WPM. Measure yours in two minutes and every time on this page recalculates.
How much to read a day
At 250 words a minute, to finish the book:
Have a deadline in mind? The pages-per-day calculator works it out for any date.
How we measured it
Method: audiobook estimate. Estimated from the original unabridged audiobook narrated by Oliver Wyman (32:45) at 155 words a minute. Matt Bomer's 2025 recording runs 28:38 and wasn't used.
Part of our study of the 100 most popular books, last checked November 2026. Reading times assume steady reading; editions, translations and your own pace all move them.
See how long it really takes you
Log it in Parch as you read. It tracks your pages, sessions and streak, so you'll know your real pace, and how long the next one will take.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read A Little Life?
About 20 hours at an average reading speed of 250 words a minute: 25 hours at 200 and 17 hours at 300.
How many words are in A Little Life?
About 304,575 words. That's estimated from the unabridged audiobook at a narration pace of 155 words a minute, so treat it as close, not exact.
How many pages a day to finish A Little Life in a month?
About 37 pages a day, or 41m of reading a day at an average pace. That assumes about 1,108 pages at 275 words a page; real page counts vary by edition.
How long is the A Little Life audiobook?
32 hours 45 minutes in Oliver Wyman's original recording: about 22 hours at 1.5x. Matt Bomer's 2025 recording runs 28 hours 38 minutes.
How long does A Little Life take at 30 minutes a day?
About 41 days at an average reading pace. At an hour a day it's about three weeks.