The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

Author(s): Olivia Laing

Contemporary Thought

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 art. Moving fluidly between the works and lives of some of the city's most compelling artists, Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone, illuminating not only the causes of loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed.


Product Information

Shortlisted for Gordon Burn Prize 2016.

Olivia Laing is a widely acclaimed writer and critic. Her work appears in numerous publications, including the Guardian, Observer, New Statesman, Frieze and New York Times. She's a Yaddo and MacDowell Fellow and was 2014 Eccles Writer in Residence at the British Library. Her first book, To the River, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Dolman Travel Book of the Year. The Trip to Echo Spring was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Biography Award and the 2014 Gordon Burn Prize. The Lonely City has been shortlisted for the 2016 Gordon Burn Prize. She lives in Cambridge.

General Fields

  • : 9781782111252
  • : A&U Canongate
  • : Canongate PBS
  • : 0.226
  • : March 2017
  • : 198mm X 129mm X 20mm
  • : March 2017
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Olivia Laing
  • : Paperback
  • : English
  • : 828.9203
  • : 9 b&w illustrations on text paper