Loneliness in Literature

Persisting loneliness in the 21st century is an inevitable phenomenon of late-stage capitalism. Often referred to as an epidemic akin to leprosy, its plight is so entrenched and seemingly incurable that, in recent years, nations such as the United Kingdom and Japan have gone so far as to appoint ministers for loneliness to address this “global issue” and the countless suicides it leads to every year. 

Undermining the importance of community and ignoring the very impossibility of human existence as atomized, independent units have given rise to the phenomenon of being ‘lonely in a crowd,’ where an individual feels a sense of isolation even while being physically proximate to other people. This experience of urban loneliness has often been at the heart of many important works of fiction, contemporary or otherwise.

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

“You ache. You ache all over. You are aching to be you, but you’re scared of what it means to do so.”

With lyrical and heart-wrenching prose, Caleb Azumah Nelson’s tale is one of trauma and racial violence but also one of love and loneliness—where we follow the quiet romance of two Black-British friends, a photographer and a dancer.

We Are Okay by Nina Lacour

“If only I had something to take the edge off the loneliness. If only lonely were a more accurate word. It should sound much less pretty.”

After an unexplained tragedy, Marin—a queer teenage girl, leaves home with nothing but her wallet, phone, and the only photo she had of her dead mother. This is a poignant story of grief and identity that will stay with you for a very long time. 

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid

“But isn’t being alone closer to the truest version of ourselves, when we’re not linked to another, not diluted by their presence and judgments? We form relationships with others, friends, family. That’s fine. Those relationships don’t bind the way love does. We can still have lovers, short-term. But only when alone can we focus on ourselves, know ourselves. How can we know ourselves without this solitude?”

Reads like a tense and unsettling literary horror story. Ian Reid’s brilliant I’m Thinking of Ending Things follows an unnamed young woman as she travels with her boyfriend to visit his parents on a secluded farm as she is having thoughts about ending their relationship.

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

“How often in life he has found himself a frustrated observer of apparently impenetrable systems, watching other people participate effortlessly in structures he can find no way to enter or even understand.”

The fourth novel by the exceptional Irish Marxist author Sally Rooney, Intermezzo quietly explores grief and family through the perspective of two brothers, Ivan and Peter. Like the rest of her books, the conversations in the midst of mundane but life-altering events between the characters assume centrality.

Heaven by Meiko Kawakami

“I knew that it was cruel to be so optimistic, but, in my solitude, I couldn’t resist the urge and spent entire days basking in idiotic fantasies, sometimes verging on prayer.”

The voice of a 14-year-old child who endures constant cruelty because of having a lazy eye tells Kawakami’s story. The boy decides to endure the bullying in total resignation rather than fighting back. A female classmate who experiences similar treatment from her tormentors is the only one who can relate to what he is going through in this book that deals with codependency, abuse and isolation.