'Empathetic, enlightening, deeply human' - Michael Harris, author of Solitude
An intimate portrait of loneliness, All the Lonely People sees psychologist Dr Sam Carr collect hours of conversations with people young and old, including single parents, carers, teenagers and the bereaved – all shared over countless cups of tea.
In stories of love and loss, of trauma and hope, told from care homes, living rooms, classrooms and kitchens, Carr discovers that while each of their stories is utterly unique, they are all born out of the same desire for human connection.
As Carr interweaves these touching and powerful tales with his own personal narrative, he opens a window onto the inner lives of regular people – the forgotten, misplaced or misjudged – who all feel isolated in some way.
Sparking a profound conversation about a universal emotion, which may simply be an inevitable part of life in an increasingly disjointed world, he questions what we can do to build stronger human relationships, and to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.
Author gives candid, empathetic and beautiful stories about loneliness and also speaks from the heart about his own personal history of loneliness -- from being a little kid in a disconnected family with a father with no heart to his time teaching English in Russia to his raising a son as a single parent. There are no answers in this book but some sort of solace that we all experience loneliness as part of being human. We are lonely because we don't have anyone to connect to or we can't be ourselves or feel known by others or we lose people we once loved. This is not a self help book but somehow reading these stories about others who experience the same kind of disconnection/sadness/loneliness was in itself a soothing balm.