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Lonely Crowds

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Lonely Crowds

By: Stephanie Wambugu
Narrated by: Shayna Small
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**FINALIST FOR THE BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE**
**LONGLISTED FOR THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVEL AWARD**
**NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35 HONOREE**
**FINALIST FOR THE 38TH ANNUAL PUBLISHING TRIANGLE AWARDS’ EDMUND WHITE AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION**

Ruth’s life changes the day she stands in line with her mother to buy a new school uniform – and sees another girl and her aunt turned away, unable to afford one. The girl, Maria, meets Ruth’s stare without shame, and from that moment, Ruth can’t stop thinking about her.

When school begins, and they turn out to be the only two girls attending on scholarship, Ruth musters the courage to introduce herself. A friendship forms – not by choice, but by something stronger. Ruth is drawn into Maria’s orbit, always circling: never too close, never quite able to pull away.

As they grow up like sisters, attend the same college, and eventually move to 1990s New York to chase dreams in the art world, the bond between them begins to buckle under the weight of ambition and rivalry. Their lives continue to converge and diverge – until they meet in one final and momentous confrontation.

 Coming of Age Friendship Genre Fiction
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Critic reviews

"If you read one book this month, make it this . . . I can’t recommend it enough – a tale of a ferocious female friendship unfolding across several decades, this is one for fans of Elena Ferrante. Like Ferrante’s books, Lonely Crowds is best enjoyed on languid summer days in the backyard"
"This superb first novel, a Bildungsroman-turned psychodrama, heralds a new American voice. Rarely have I been as rapt as I was by Wambugu’s heartbreaking, psychologically rich, cri de coeur" (LUCY SCHOLES)
"In her depiction of Ruth, Wambugu depicts best the stubborn fixity of the artist, the pathological potential of their obsessions. At the same time, she writes tenderly about how it might be, or at least might feel, necessary for an artist to fall in love with their subject, to allow their presence to colour their life . . . [Lonely Crowds is] the most cogent example of the artist’s life as a life of endless, encircling pursuit"
"A stunning debut novel"
"An impressive, gripping debut that has been lauded by critics and readers alike for its honest writing that addresses . . . female friendship and familial dynamics to devotion and the relationship between identity and artmaking, with the precision, insight and nuance of a seasoned novelist"
"The debut novel that became a cult literary obsession . . . Wambugu’s prose is kinetic and finely calibrated, with a poet’s dedication to precise images. While Lonely Crowds feels sharply realised in its historical setting, the novel captures an unmistakably contemporary malaise, encompassing generational schisms, living to work and constricting social norms"
"Wambugu writes with a wry lucidity that blooms into the occasional zinger. There is an obvious comic talent here, lying in wait behind Ruth’s tight-lipped severity. But then the comic and the serious are not opposites either: they are as interdependent as love and hate."
"From the opening lines of Lonely Crowds I felt in the presence of The Real Deal — a voice confident enough to be restrained, brilliant enough to render complex psychospiritual states with irreducible simplicity. I was fascinated not just by its characters (indelible!) and narrative (gripping!) but by Wambugu’s overarching ambition, how she takes on serious questions about obsession, history, art, and love without smirking, no waving away earnest devotion or the cavities it leaves. It’s a project of real moral gravity, eternal questions asked with precise particularity — I’m delighted, but not at all surprised, that it’s leaving readers so awed" (KAVEH AKBAR)
"A vibrant Künstlerroman, sexy and sharply observed" (RAVEN LEILANI, author of Luster)
"Every year, I read dozens of good debut novels – I have never until Lonely Crowds read one so entirely, assuredly itself. Wambugu has that rare confluence of austere excellence to be admired, and vivid, sensuous warmth to be moved and devastated by" (MEGAN NOLAN)
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