The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone (Paperback)

'Triumphant... a brave writer whose books open up fundamental questions about life and art' - Daily Telegraph 

'Wonderfully freewheeling... constantly surprising... inspired' - The Guardian

'Luminously wise and deeply compassionate... a fierce and essential work -- Helen MacDonald, author of H is for Hawk

'Unusually brave... Sublime' - The Times 

'A new kind of literature... Endlessly, compulsively fascinating' - New Statesman 

'Laing cuts close to the bone of a universal yet often unrelatable state' -Financial Times 

'One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction... Compelling and original' - Harpers Bazaar

T'he Lonely City is continually unexpected, stimulating and beautifully structured. I am in awe of Olivia Laing's insights, braininess and that something that feels like recklessness until it lands' - Peter Carey

'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

'Exhilarating... beautifully integrated, original, compassionate' - Michele Roberts, Independent 

'A gifted critic and biographer... a fascinating, eerie piece of writing' - The Sunday Times

'Smart and oddly consoling... Laing makes the topic her own' - The New York Times Book Review 

'Blisteringly precise... Her gift as a critic is her ability to imaginatively sympathize with her subjects in a way that allows the art and life of the artist to go on radiating meaning after the book is closed' - Elle

'An uncommonly observant hybrid of memoir, history and cultural criticism . . . a book of extraordinary compassion and insight' - The San Francisco Chronicle 

'Remarkable . . . a memoir, an essay and a group biography all in one, which takes a difficult, almost taboo subject and deftly turns it over anew' - Evening Standard 

'Connecting becomes less intimidating if the fear of failure is removed. This brave book is a step in that direction' - The Economist