The Lonely City cover art

The Lonely City

Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Lonely City

By: Olivia Laing
Narrated by: Zara Ramm
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

What does it mean to be lonely? How do we live if we're not intimately engaged with another human being? How do we connect with other people?

When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-30s, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Fascinated by the experience, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly between works and lives - from Edward Hopper's Nighthawks to Andy Warhol's Time Capsules, from Henry Darger's hoarding to David Wojnarowicz's AIDS activism - 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.

Humane, provocative and deeply moving, The Lonely City is about the spaces between people and the things that draw them together, about sexuality, mortality and the magical possibilities of art. It's a celebration of a strange and lovely state, adrift from the larger continent of human experience, but intrinsic to the very act of being alive.

©2016 Olivia Laing (P)2016 Audible, Ltd City

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Fire in the Belly cover art
Modern Nature cover art
Egyptian Mythology cover art
The Sea Wolves cover art
Ninth Street Women cover art
Unspeakable cover art
Red Land, Black Land cover art
The Seven Daughters of Eve cover art
Helen of Troy cover art
The Big Sea cover art
Jung cover art
The Greater Journey cover art
Candide [CSA Word] cover art

Critic reviews

"A triumphant book.... Laing is a brave writer, whose books open up fundamental questions about life and art." ( Telegraph)
"[Laing's] description of her acute loneliness feels unusually brave.... Sublime." ( The Times)
All stars
Most relevant
In this book, Olivia Laing explores the experience of loneliness through the lives and work of four artists: Hopper, Warhol, Wajnarowicz, and Darger, weaving their biographies with her own experience. It is both scholarly and deeply humane, and so very relevant to our times, all the more so in the light of the isolation imposed by the Covid pandemic.

The reader was very good, apart from the odd mispronunciation (e.g. tempura for tempera). Surely it's part of the job of a reader to look up unfamiliar terms, or those that don't seem to make sense. But apart from that, she did capture the poetry and whole-heartedness of Laing's writing, no easy task.

A wonderful, wise and relevant book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved it, it changed my perspective on artists such as Warhol. I never put much weight in his work and found it so commercial and cold and yet now I understand why these qualities make perfect sense in his work and why there is actually a lot of pain and emotion in his work. I was impressed by the way the author gave her own feelings and yet told the stories of others with care and understanding but with a raw and truthful lense.

Definitely recommend.

A tender and intimate look at loneliness and art.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A brilliant blend of memoir, psychology, philosophy, centred around the fascinating lives and works of several artists. Really interesting. I think the only thing the audiobook may lack compared to the book is pictures of the art discussed, but I will definitely listen again and look these up.

Wonderful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One of the best books I have encountered in a while, its strings together personal experience, art & the artist biographies, with a commentary on the bazar (lonely) uncertainty in which we live today. Thought provoking and reflective - difficult to put down.

Human loneliness, art and now.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Such a unique, powerful and thoughtful book. Accessible even for an Art ignoramus like myself and beautifully, touchingly personal at the same time. Superb

Really, truly excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Many references to artists, books and movies which, when read and seen, would make this book an even more intense and gripping read. So I'm sure I pick it up some time again. That adds to the value of from a good book, isn't it?

Loved it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great, plain narration with emotional resonance conveyed where necessary. Plus extremely interesting meditations on art.

Exceptional audiobook

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listening to this whilst painting, I felt as though my innermost fears for/ on loneliness were cradled and cared for. Excellent writing & narration

So so beautifully written & narrated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This narrator cannot pronounce “Giuliani”, and it’s really quite embarrassing. Also there’s way too much on Warhol

Fine - but a bit Warhol-heavy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There was alot of sexuality and the author obviously read alot into the subject but it wasn't clear how graphic the book would be before reading it. The book is full of many stories which have been well written and researched but I'd liked to have heard more about how loneliness affects the process of making art and not so much on sex. I would not have listened to this or have spent my money on this if I'd know. I am disappointed this wasn't made more clear from the blurb. I feel I have wasted my money as after the first couple of chapters it talks about sex and relationships of artists for almost all of the length of the book and less about the art its self, by then it was to late to get a refund.

Not what I expected.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews