Conversations on loneliness is moving and relatable. It provides an intimate portrayal of loneliness, not only are there stories from different people but the author also shares a lot of their own life experiences.
I loved how uniqueness is celebrated but the universal themes come through.
The writing is accessible and you could read it in parts focusing on the individual stories.
Various psychological perspectives are drawn from giving a good discussion and exploration of what loneliness can mean.
An interesting and thought provoking book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from "All the Lonely People", but whatever it was it wasn't what I got. Some of the stories shared in this book are really hard to read and actually strengthened my own feelings of loneliness and isolation. The stories are presented well, but I'm left wondering what the point of the book actually is. Grim reading with no light at the end of the tunnel.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

I liked this, my first non fiction in a good while however it didn't seem pretentious in any way and the writing was really easy to read and follow.
I really enjoyed the first half of the book and the dive into grief and loneliness, more so because I could relate. I found the book to get a bit respective and I felt more disconnected as I read.

It was interesting to read about loneliness and what that means to different people. The authors personal stories add emotion to the book and helped keep me interested.

I did cry a few times reading this.

All the Lonely People is a collection of stories of love, loss and loneliness collected by Dr Sam Carr, a psychologist. He would also refer to himself as simply "an academic and a researcher" or a social scientist. He concerns himself with what it is to be human generally. The stories come from people close to him (& from him himself) or people he has interviewed and are generally anonymised other than those of his family.

The book quickly resonated with me when the author says that people's personal stories need to be heard and that in hearing them they feel there is an acknowledgment and comfort - so true. The introduction, before the book starts, has the story of the author's grandpa after the death of his wife of many years. In its way it was deeply personal and I thought it was excellent. The story of his grandfather's deterioration and the loneliness there was powerful and helped set the scene for the books as a whole. The author lived with his grandpa for a while and that was very poignant.

After that the book is divided into four parts. These are Relationships, Invisibility, Escape and Outsiders. This allows the book to cover aspects of loneliness in a more coherent way maybe. The first part has mainly stories of those who are ageing and coping with loss. I guess this part was the one I liked the most in this book overall. The stories are varied and the outcomes are not all happy. Paula's story is an exception to that. After losing her husband 4 years earlier she is starting to move on possibly. Her comment that as a carer she felt "invisible" was interesting in a powerful way. I also enjoyed Peter's story. Having lost his wife he did seem to finding ways to enjoy his life again!

An exception to the aging aspect of the first part is Jake's story. By the age of 10 he has had 7 homes in 5 years and now despairs of finding somewhere settled. I found the way this story gradually resolved both enlightening and wonderful! Within this part and in all the other parts the author has stories from his family. Although some were interesting for me this was not the best part of the book. That said every part of this book held stories that interested me and some were excellent. I could quote from other stories that interested me however discovering the tales is best left to the reader.

In each of the parts there is consideration of aspects of loneliness and the psychology/psychiatry background and thinking behind them. The works of Bowlby and Jung are referred to in this book. This combined with the stories would make me wonder what the target audience is for this book. It feels a bit like a an academic textbook at times, at others more of a personal memoir given the amount of stories from the author's family.