Ten top books about loneliness

Fay Bound Alberti's newest book is A Biography of Loneliness: The History of an Emotion.

At the Guardian, she tagged ten "books for what they have to say individually, as well as what they represent collectively, about the historically changing meanings of loneliness."

One title on the list:

The Lonely City by Olivia Laing (2016)

Laing explores the paradox of loneliness in the city – multitudes of others alongside an “omnipresent, unanswerable feeling that I was in a state of lack”. She also considers the sense of blame attached (which reminds me of the dismissal of lonely people in the UK as “Billy no-mates”, as though they are lonely for a reason). Loneliness can bring creativity, too, Laing reminds us, via a (strikingly male) lineup of artists that includes Edward Hopper, Edward Darger and Andy Warhol.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue