Description

Ruth’s life changes the day she stands in line with her mother to buy a new school uniform – and sees another girl and her aunt turned away, unable to afford one. The girl, Maria, meets Ruth’s stare without shame, and from that moment, Ruth can’t stop thinking about her.

When school begins, and they turn out to be the only two girls attending on scholarship, Ruth musters the courage to introduce herself. A friendship forms – not by choice, but by something stronger. Ruth is drawn into Maria’s orbit, always circling: never too close, never quite able to pull away.

As they grow up like sisters, attend the same college, and eventually move to 1990s New York to chase dreams in the art world, the bond between them begins to buckle under the weight of ambition and rivalry. Their lives continue to converge and diverge – until they meet in one final and momentous confrontation.

Publisher Review

A vibrant kunstlerroman, sexy and sharply observed — RAVEN LEILANI, author of Luster Every year, I read dozens of good debut novels – I have never until Lonely Crowds read one so entirely, assuredly itself. Wambugu has that rare confluence of austere excellence to be admired, and vivid, sensuous warmth to be moved and devastated by — MEGAN NOLAN The best novel about friendship I have read for years, the writing precise, the feelings volcanic. The ecstasies of friendship and its mayhem are laid bare — SUSIE BOYT From the first page, Stephanie Wambugu illuminates the tumult of female friendship so vividly and with such wise insight that you can’t put this novel down. Lonely Crowds is a bravura debut, from a stunningly gifted writer — CLAIRE MESSUD Extraordinary . . . Wambugu writes with an easy wit, her sentences as approachable as her deeply relatable narrator . . . as Ruth grows up and into an independent perspective whose outlines can finally be distinguished from those of the people she grew up with, it’s the specificity of this young woman’s mind, the contours with which she draws the characters and environments around her, that make Lonely Crowds exceptional . . . Wambugu shows that the state of devotion can be more about the giver than the receiver * * New York Times Book Review * * A book of obsession and quiet brutality, interrogating what it means to chase goals – artistic success, fulfilling friendships – that may, ultimately, hold no real value * * Los Angeles Review of Books * * Perhaps the most prevailing myth about childhood friends is that they know each other completely and love each other best. Wambugu counters such sentimentalism by revealing the many secrets and misunderstandings at the core of Ruth and Maria’s friendship. In their world, a lifelong bond is not a comfort but a liability * * Atlantic * * [An] uncommonly elegant debut novel . . . Wambugu’s prose has a propulsive, almost hypnotic drive, and she knows how to keep it moving, getting through about as much time in one book as [Elena] Ferrante does in three . . . a thrilling and capacious novel about intimacy and artmaking in which the narrator proves to be more compelling than her muse * * The Cut * * Masterful, thoughtful . . . In short, blunt sentences, the book devastatingly portrays the realities of money, race, sexuality, ambition – long with the gossipy competitiveness of any insular scene – that both Ruth and Maria confront in New York . . . one of the most emotionally and intellectually rich debuts I can remember reading in this or any year * * Boston Globe * * Writing beautifully about ambition, class, art, domesticity, identity, and complacency, Wambugu’s prose is as striking as it is sure. A heartbreaking and penetrating coming-of-age debut * * Kirkus Reviews * *