The Lonely City

Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

By: Olivia Laing

Narrated by: Olivia Laing, Tilda Swinton

Read by Tilda Swinton and Olivia Laing.

‘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.

Critic reviews

"Triumphant . . . A brave writer whose books open up fundamental questions about life and art"

"Luminously wise and deeply compassionate . . . A fierce and essential work" (HELEN MACDONALD, author of H IS FOR HAWK)

"Wonderfully freewheeling . . . Constantly surprising . . . Inspired"

"The Lonely City is a stunning homage to how extreme loneliness can make us more hospitable to the strangeness of others – to the risks and innovations of art and artists. Laing has written a classic that will be cherished for years to come" (DEBORAH LEVY, author of SWIMMING HOME)

"A new kind of literature . . . Endlessly, compulsively fascinating"

"Unusually brave . . . Sublime"

"Laing cuts close to the bone of a universal yet often unrelatable state"

"A gifted critic and biographer . . . a fascinating, eerie piece of writing"

"One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction . . . Compelling and original"

"Exhilarating . . . beautifully integrated, original, compassionate"

A discussion for our times

Written before the 2020 COVID 19 pandemic, and only recently recorded as an audio with the brilliant Tilda Swinton narrating, there is a timelessness to this book that is haunting.

Apart from encouraging examination of the concepts of being alone and loneliness as separate entities, herein exists stories of the lives of many artists across various genres (some I was unaware of) that makes this book thought provoking, poignant, and very relevant to today.