Author: Mike Gayle
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1538720159
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Get Book Here
Book Description
If you loved A Man Called Ove, then prepare to be delighted as Jamaican immigrant Hubert rediscovers the world he'd turned his back on this "warm, funny" novel (Good Housekeeping). In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship, and fulfillment. But it's a lie. In reality, Hubert's days are all the same, dragging on without him seeing a single soul. Until he receives some good news—good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on. The news that his daughter is coming for a visit. Now Hubert faces a seemingly impossible task: to make his real life resemble his fake life before the truth comes out. Along the way Hubert stumbles across a second chance at love, renews a cherished friendship, and finds himself roped into an audacious community scheme that seeks to end loneliness once and for all . . . Life is certainly beginning to happen to Hubert Bird. But with the origin of his earlier isolation always lurking in the shadows, will he ever get to live the life he's pretended to have for so long?
Author: Mike Gayle
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1473687403
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 368
Get Book Here
Book Description
Shortlisted for the British Book Awards Book of the Year: Pageturners. The 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association. From the bestselling author of The Man I Think I Know comes this heart-warming novel of family, friendship and human connection. 'Hubert Bird stole my heart' Beth O'Leary, author of The Flat-Share and The Switch 'Lovely, emotional, uplifting' Libby Page, author of The Lido 'A heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting look at isolation' Guardian In phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun and friendship. But Hubert Bird is lying. Something has made him turn his back on people, and he hardly sees a soul. So when his daughter announces she's coming to visit, Hubert faces a race against time: to make his real life resemble his fake life before he's found out. Along the way Hubert renews a cherished friendship, is given a second chance at love and even joins an audacious community scheme. But with the secret of his earlier isolation lurking in the shadows, is he destines to always be one of the lonely people? Readers love All The Lonely People: 'Best book of 2021 so far' 5* 'I absolutely adored every page' 5* 'Wonderful, moving, emotional and very thought provoking' 5* 'An emotional journey' 5* 'A beautiful book' 5* 'Heartbreaking and heartwarming' 5*
Author: Gervase Phinn
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141919078
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 84
Get Book Here
Book Description
Even with a huge problem to worry about, Father McKenzie still manages to see the good in everyone. His job is made more difficult by his nosy housekeeper and the gossips from the shop down the road. Will they succeed in spoiling things, or will Father McKenzie's advice win the day? This charming tale shows the ups and downs of everyday life in a truly heart-warming way. It will have you laughing out loud and shedding a tear - both at the same time.
Author: David Owen
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 034900319X
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Get Book Here
Book Description
'I loved it . . . There's nothing out there like All The Lonely People - it's uniquely brilliant, bold and not afraid to shout about what's wrong with the world, while still showing how subtle changes and hope can save lives. Original, shocking, eye-opening and thoroughly enjoyable' Simon P Clark, author of Eren Everyone tells Kat that her online personality - confident, funny, opinionated - isn't her true self. Kat knows otherwise. The internet is her only way to cope with a bad day, chat with friends who get all her references, make someone laugh. But when she becomes the target of an alt-right trolling campaign, she feels she has no option but to Escape, Delete, Disappear. With her social media shut down, her website erased, her entire online identity void, Kat feels she has cut away her very core: without her virtual self, who is she? She brought it on herself. Or so Wesley keeps telling himself as he dismantles Kat's world. It's different, seeing one of his victims in real life and not inside a computer screen - but he's in too far to back out now. As soon as Kat disappears from the online world, her physical body begins to fade and while everybody else forgets that she exists, Wesley realises he is the only one left who remembers her. Overcome by remorse for what he has done, Wesley resolves to stop her disappearing completely. It might just be the only way to save himself. All the Lonely People is a timely story about online culture - both good and bad - that explores the experience of loneliness in a connected world, and the power of kindness and empathy over hatred.
Author: Fay Bound Alberti
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192539337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Get Book Here
Book Description
'A compassionate, wide-ranging study.' Terry Eagleton, The Guardian Despite 21st-century fears of a modern 'epidemic' of loneliness, its history has been sorely neglected. A Biography of Loneliness is the first history of its kind to be published in English, offering a radically new interpretation of loneliness as an emotional language and experience. Using letters and diaries, philosophical tracts, political discussions, and medical literature from the eighteenth century to the present, historian of the emotions Fay Bound Alberti argues that loneliness is not an ahistorical, universal phenomenon. It is, in fact, a modern emotion: before 1800, its language did not exist. As Alberti shows, the birth of loneliness is linked to the development of modernity: the all-encompassing ideology of the individual that has emerged in the mind and physical sciences, in economic structures, in philosophy and politics. While it has a biography of its own, loneliness impacts on people differently, according to their gender, ethnicity, religion, outlook, and socio-economic position. It is, Alberti argues, not a single state but an 'emotion cluster', composed of a wide variety of responses that include fear, anger, resentment and sorrow. In spite of this, loneliness is not always negative. And it is physical as well as psychological: loneliness is a product of the body as much as the mind. Looking at informative case studies such as Sylvia Plath, Queen Victoria, and Virginia Woolf, A Biography of Loneliness charts the emergence of loneliness as a modern emotional state. From social media addiction to widowhood, from homelessness to the oldest old, from mall hauls to massages, loneliness appears in all aspects of 21st-century life. Yet we cannot address its meanings, let alone formulate a cure, without attention to its complex, protean history.
Author: Elizabeth Tan
Publisher: Brio Books Pty Ltd
ISBN: 1922267201
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 182
Get Book Here
Book Description
Conspiracies, celebrities, and therapies underpin this beguiling short-story collection from Elizabeth Tan. A cat-shaped oven tells a depressed woman she doesn't have to be sorry anymore. A Yourtopia Bespoke Terraria employee becomes paranoid about the mounting coincidences in her life. Four girls gather to celebrate their fabulous underwear. With her trademark wit and slicing social commentary, Elizabeth Tan’s short stories are as funny as they are insightful. This collection cements her role as one of Australia’s most inventive writers ‘This utterly original book will mess with your mind and make you laugh like a drain.‘ Sydney Morning Herald ‘Elizabeth Tan can twist ordinary suburban life into the weirdest shapes.’ The Monthly ‘Tan twists a future that has already arrived with one in the process of arriving.’ The Saturday Paper ‘In a collection of consistent highlights, the brilliance of some stories is particularly blinding.’ Australian Book Review ‘Tan’s evocation of this dreamlike incongruity is playful, reminiscent of Murakami’s blasé surrealism and Coupland’s crafty wryness.’ Sydney Review of Books
Author: Olivia Laing
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250039576
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Get Book Here
Book Description
There is a particular flavor to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by thousands of strangers. This roving cultural history of urban loneliness centers on the ultimate city: Manhattan, that teeming island of gneiss, concrete, and glass. How do we connect with other people, particularly if our sexuality or physical body is considered deviant or damaged? Does technology draw us closer together or trap us behind screens? Laing travels deep into the work and lives of some of the century's most original artists in a celebration of the state of loneliness.
Author: Ralph Keyes
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Kristen Radtke
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 1524748056
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 359
Get Book Here
Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Imagine Wanting Only This—a timely and moving meditation on isolation and longing, both as individuals and as a society. There is a silent epidemic in America: loneliness. Shameful to talk about and often misunderstood, loneliness is everywhere, from the most major of metropolises to the smallest of towns. In Seek You, Kristen Radtke's wide-ranging exploration of our inner lives and public selves, Radtke digs into the ways in which we attempt to feel closer to one another, and the distance that remains. Through the lenses of gender and violence, technology and art, Radtke ushers us through a history of loneliness and longing, and shares what feels impossible to share. Ranging from the invention of the laugh-track to the rise of Instagram, the bootstrap-pulling cowboy to the brutal experiments of Harry Harlow, Radtke investigates why we engage with each other, and what we risk when we turn away. With her distinctive, emotionally-charged drawings and deeply empathetic prose, Kristen Radtke masterfully shines a light on some of our most vulnerable and sublime moments, and asks how we might keep the spaces between us from splitting entirely.
Author: April Henry
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company (BYR)
ISBN: 1250157587
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Get Book Here
Book Description
A killer is on the loose, and only one girl has the power to find him. But in this genre-bending YA thriller, she must first manage to avoid becoming a target herself. For Adele, the dead aren’t really dead. She can see them and even talk to them. But she’s spent years denying her gift. When she encounters her ex-best friend Tori in the woods and then realizes that Tori is actually dead in a shallow grave—that gift turns into a curse. Without an alibi, Adele becomes the prime suspect in Tori’s murder. She must work with Tori’s ghost to find the real killer. But what if the killer finds Adele first? In The Lonely Dead, master mystery writer April Henry adds a chilling paranormal twist to this incredibly suspenseful young adult novel. Christy Ottaviano Books
