Yale is one of two primary narrators in The Great Believers. He is a gay man who lives in Chicago and is 31 years old at the beginning of the AIDS crisis in 1985. He is intelligent, cautious, and deeply considerate of others. Though Yale works in financial development for the Brigg gallery at Northwestern University, he is a great lover of art. Originally, Makkai had planned to write a novel about the 1920s Paris art community, but she found herself becoming increasingly fascinated by the story of the gay “art guy” who was helping with her research. This “art guy” became the inspiration for Yale Tishman (and for Makkai’s blending of the Paris art world with the Chicago AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s).

Yale grew up in Michigan with his father, a Jewish man who was a stable but emotionally distanced caregiver. Yale’s mother left home to become an actress when he was an adolescent boy, and he still sees her intermittently on commercials (often performing the maternal roles she never performed in her real life). Because Yale does not receive a great deal of love and connection from his biological family, he seeks love from his chosen family: His circle of gay friends—Nico, Terrence, Teddy, Julian, and Asher—his close friend and ally, Fiona, his partner, Charlie, and his adoring mother-in-law, Teresa.