Description

‘Wonderful and necessary’ ANNE ENRIGHT ~ ‘Constantly surprising’ GUARDIAN ~ ‘Stunning’ DEBORAH LEVY ~ ‘Compulsively fascinating’ NEW STATESMAN ~ ‘Beautiful’ HANYA YANAGIHARA ~ ‘Daring and seductive NEW YORK TIMES ~ ‘Profound, unclassifiable’ GARTH GREENWELL ~ ‘Exhilarating’ INDEPENDENT ~ ‘Continually unexpected’ PETER CAREY ~ ‘Triumphant’ TELEGRAPH ~ ‘Luminously wise’ HELEN MACDONALD ~ ‘Unusually brave’ THE TIMES

When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by this most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of some of its most compelling artists, illuminating loneliness in a whole new light.

The Lonely City is a celebration of that strange and lovely state, intrinsic to the very act of being alive. Hailed as ‘a new kind of literature’ when it was first published and selling over two hundred thousand copies, Olivia Laing’s dazzling book has been beloved by readers all over the world. Now, in this tenth anniversary edition, Laing reflects in a new afterword on how our experience of loneliness has changed over the course of a difficult decade.

Publisher Review

Triumphant . . . A brave writer whose books open up fundamental questions about life and art * * Telegraph * * Luminously wise and deeply compassionate . . . A fierce and essential work — HELEN MACDONALD Wonderfully freewheeling . . . Constantly surprising . . . Inspired * * Guardian * * Stunning . . . Laing has written a classic that will be cherished for years to come — DEBORAH LEVY Endlessly, compulsively fascinating * * New Statesman * * Unusually brave . . . Sublime * * The Times * * Laing cuts close to the bone of a universal yet often unrelatable state * * Financial Times * * A gifted critic and biographer . . . a fascinating, eerie piece of writing * * Sunday Times * * One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction . . . Compelling and original * * Harper’s Bazaar * * This book changed my life. It taught me how to fall in love with writing about art — KATY HESSEL