Description:
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Schreiber’s Alone: Reflections on Solitary Living was a surprise bestseller in Germany when it was first published in 2021, now translated into English by Ben Fergusson. In it, Schreiber eloquently digs in to the taboo subjects of loneliness and shame. It has to be said that Alone is not a self-help book; it’s an existential book, and all the more transgressive for it. A hybrid between essay and memoir, the author puts to work the writing of various philosophers and poets, including Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sappho to examine the vicissitudes of intimacy, solitude, the solace of friendships. Schreiber is interested in the gap between the life we live and the life that we imagined for ourselves. In this sense, Alone is also a conversation about yearning for an unlived life.” ― New Statesman, Books of the Year 2023
"Schreiber has previously written a biography of Susan Sontag and several volumes of essays, and this is a work suffused with the essayistic sensibility. It blends passages of memoir with scholarly and literary references to explore the author’s existence as a single gay man who often feels he is living outside standard social models. . . . Friendship is, in fact, as much the topic of this book as aloneness. Schreiber writes interestingly about it, drawing a contrast between its polymorphic freedoms and the 'grand narratives' of love and family. . . . Alone follows a 'small' spirit itself; it takes only brief dips into its sources, and does not drive towards any climactic answer. . . . Beautiful images and insights bounce up along the way." ― Guardian, Book of the Day
"A heartfelt memoir on being single, living alone and the existential experience of loneliness. . . . A study of intimacy and independence. . . . Alone is also a very personal narrative, one that covers friendship, sexuality, depression and ageing. Schreiber’s observations are heartfelt, particularly the ideas that even the most acute loneliness can bring us something." ― Financial Times
"Schreiber’s set of linked essays underscores the differences between being lonely and being alone, then brings forward the complex and fluid relationship between those states. . . . Schreiber’s essays have what I can only describe as a lived-in feel. A few quotations here won’t suffice to convey how many shades of experience—of contentment and gloom and everything in between—show through." ― Inside Higher Ed
"Schreiber’s melancholy genius, reminiscent of Thomas Mann, is evident on every page. The delicacy of his insights, his quiet dedication to consciousness, and the calibre of his reflections mark him as a writer to treasure." ― The Australian
"[Schreiber] fuses memoir with intellectual flair, quoting from philosophers and psychoanalysts as he considers the lot of a larger than ever group of people. Hermits and intimacy, the taboo of loneliness and the consolation of friendship—all find their place in a meditation that nods to joy and adversity." ― The Observer (UK)
"The challenges and contours of a life spent largely alone is the subject of Schreiber's reflective, elegantly written book—a bestseller in Germany and recently translated into English. In eight essays, blending personal narrative and psychology, Schreiber explores contemporary solitude. . . . Schreiber writes perceptively of the pain of being 'left behind' in love, and of the cumulative effect of routine loneliness and its insidious, stultifying impact on well-being and broader world view. His descriptions of mixed, murky feelings are evocative, moving and often instantly familiar. . . . Schreiber applies psychology and sociology carefully, never rushing to flimsy conclusions or reaching for false connections. . . . Schreiber's well-read self-reflection elevates Alone. With this thought-provoking, often profound book, he proffers a hand to anyone who may have felt irrevocably, irredeemably alone and says 'me, too.'" ― New Scientist
"The sheer number of us who are lonely is good news (in a way) for a writer of Schreiber’s calibre. I’m not surprised that the German essayist and biographer’s poignant and personal exploration of this taboo subject spent nearly a year on Germany’s bestseller list in 2021. . . . Although divided into chapters on different aspects of loneliness . . . the book’s 152 pages read as one long essay on being alone. . . . Along the way we are treated to snippets from sociologists, psychologists and writers. . . . Schreiber writes movingly about our expectations of what counts as a good life." ― Tablet
"Beautifully written." ― Country Life, "Best Books of 2023"
"Drawing on personal experience, as well as philosophy and sociology, Schreiber explores the tensions between our desire for solitude and our need for companionship and intimacy. The result is a ‘profoundly enlightening look at loneliness in modern life.'” ― Bookseller
"A slim book of 150 pages, it combines his personal experiences and reflections with philosophical, psychological and cultural insights into the subject of living alone. . . . Thoughtful, inclusive, and at times poetic, this is a quietly beautiful book that I can imagine many people, alone or coupled, relishing for its insights." ― Welldoing.org, Book of the Month
“The most moving, memorable books are the ones that attempt to answer questions that the author has been struggling with for his entire life. In Alone, Schreiber—a beautiful writer and, just as important, a beautiful thinker—explores the questions of not just his life, but our age: Who am I if no one loves me? What are the limits of friendship? How does one live with deep and profound loneliness? This is a book for not just this year, but this era.” -- Hanya Yanagihara, author of "A Little Life" and "To Paradise"
“Schreiber has written a brave and searching vindication of single life, a book about the cultivation and tending of solitude, about solitude as an art. Amid the bewildering loss of everydayness imposed by the pandemic, when solitude was not chosen but enforced, Schreiber creates in these pages a moving conversation—with philosophers and poets, theorists and novelists—about the sources of value in our lives. By multiplying our sense of those sources, by insisting on the dignity of models of life that have sometimes been disparaged, this book finally becomes a document of liberation.” -- Garth Greenwell, author of "What Belongs to You" and "Cleanness"
"An intelligent, moving, and heartfelt meditation on the mixed joys and sorrows of solitude. Schreiber's prose is gorgeous, practically silken, and he wears his erudition so lightly that he is the best possible guide on this journey to the elegant lunar landscape of aloneness." -- Lauren Groff, author of "Matrix" and "Fates and Furies"
“Oh my god, I tore through this breathtaking book! Alone is gorgeously, sensitively written and yet so explicit in its honesty and vulnerability. I connected with it deeply and personally—I truly loved it.” -- Jami Attenberg, author of “All This Could Be Yours” and “I Came All This Way to Meet You”
"This is a book to love and to cherish. Schreiber is such a skilled and engaging writer. Without sentimentality, he digs into the taboo subject of loneliness—societal, personal, existential; the salvation of hiking, the many dimensions of friendship, the solace of literature, the value of kindness, the pleasures of solitude. You will meet Nietzsche, Sappho, Arendt—and perhaps you will meet yourself, walking in the hills, thinking about new ways to live." -- Deborah Levy, author of "The Cost of Living" and "August Blue"
"Schreiber’s Alone, immaculately translated from the German by Fergusson, is an examination and celebration of friendship, marred by his need to denigrate more intimate relationships. . . . Acute and fascinating. . . . A book so honest might be desolate. It’s not.” ― Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
Ben Fergusson is an award-winning writer and translator. He is the author of Tales from the Fatherland and An Honest Man.
Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars Friendship is complicated, nurturing, and not what we always think it should be.
Deeply reflective, like a flowing diary, of what loneliness can mean... which takes many shapes and forms in our lives depending on our circumstances. The author is vulnerable and notes he hasn't specific answers or exercises one should do to become less lonely, only that engagement in the daily routines of living, seeing a garden grow, knitting (I can attest to its benefits, giving birth to an object made of one long strand of wool), doing yoga (Pilates for me), is a way to find one's space in a world that can be cruelly crushing. I appreciated the connections to others' work that helped Schreiber on his path and will read Audre Lorde's, Derek Jarmen's and others' works as I work on finding my way.
5.0 out of 5 stars introspective work on living alone
I read this to gain another’s insight into what his journey was in living alone, as I am doing it for the first time in my life. I found it richer than expected, with insight into the relationships that make our life full, and the losses we need to grieve.
1.0 out of 5 stars It's unreadable
A fairly neurotic academic regurgitates quotes from every book he has read about what, for what purpose, finally? He's not exactly living a life alone - he has lots of friends (close and otherwise) and colleagues - he just doesn't have a romantic partner (mentioned numerous times), which he can't seem to admit or reconcile in his life (he would drive me crazy). 127 pages of text and 20 pages of end notes (essentially listing everything he has read on a variety of subjects). Generalizations all over the place, not explored, not cohesively developed. An academic mind run amuck (and I'm a retired academic in an associated field). Made it to page 50. Couldn't take it anymore. Why do publishers publish this stuff???
2.0 out of 5 stars Normalizing awfulness
I would second what kcp said, though I couldn’t get as far in the book as they did before the eye-rolling became exhausting.I call these kinds of productions Pottery Barn, because you can easily imagine the writer’s many chi-chi friends shopping there to furnish and decorate their cheesy lives.[parody] “We sat around the fire pit on the verandah overlooking our gardens, sipping on wine from our private vineyards, reading Rilke out loud to each other while white taffeta curtains billowed in the tall windows of the villa behind us,” yadda yadda yadda.Doesn’t critique the institution of coupledom, as well it should, but certainly reinforces the social media era’s emphasis on collecting “friends” and advertising one’s perfectly curated lifestyle.I’m sure the sequel will be all about finding the One and finally having a date for dinner party invitations.Enough already.
1.0 out of 5 stars Alone? Really alone?
I wanted to like this book. I tried to like this book. It seemed the author was throwing his not-so-alone life in my face. I've been looking for a book that I can relate to, this was not it.
Perspective
It's a very insightful book that helps you shift your perspective on life lived on your own and the value of friendships. It's optimistic but honest and will always be a tool I refer to when my mind attacks itself..
Interesting ideas on living alone
It was not quite what I thought it would be. Reading it I thought the auther was about 30 years old. After I read the book I researched him and it turns out he was about 45 when he wrote it. If I had realised that at the begining it might have had a different meaning.He was also gay. That was OK, but I assumed the book was about living alone for anyone. Some of his ideas and feelings were true for anyone, but may have had different effects for gay people.The central section also concerned the effects of isolation due to Covid restrictions. It was interesting to see how he was affected by the international situation. He raised ideas that had not occured to me.So overall, I learned a great deal about isolation as a single person living on their own, and how it had affected him, particularly as a gay person. It was worth the read.Well written and presented in a way that enabled the reader to understand what was happening to an isolated individual.
Tedious
Tedious. The author seemed to see it as an opportunity to listen and quote from other books he'd read rather than offer any thoughts or contribution.
Addresses some pertinent issues of being alone.
The writing is well drafted and makes for thoughtful reading.There is a good flow to the material and not maudlin in tone.
Not worth your time
Such a poor book with no analysis. Sorry but this is a waste of time…
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Alone: Reflections on Solitary Living
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Visit the Reaktion Books Store
Alone: Reflections on Solitary Living
AED18121
Quantity:
Order today to get by 7-14 business days
Delivery fee of AED 20. Free for orders above AED 200.
Imported From: United States
At BOLO, we work hard to ensure the products you receive are new, genuine, and sourced from reputable suppliers.
BOLO is not an authorized or official retailer for most brands, nor are we affiliated with manufacturers unless specifically stated on a product page. Instead, we source verified sellers, authorized distributors or directly from the manufacturer.
Each product undergoes thorough inspection and verification at our consolidation and fulfilment centers to ensure it meets our strict authenticity and quality standards before being shipped and delivered to you.
If you ever have concerns regarding the authenticity of a product purchased from us, please contact Bolo Support. We will review your inquiry promptly and, if necessary, provide documentation verifying authenticity or offer a suitable resolution.
Your trust is our top priority, and we are committed to maintaining transparency and integrity in every transaction.
All product information, images, descriptions, and reviews originate from the manufacturer or from trusted sellers overseas. BOLO is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an authorized retailer for most brands listed on our website unless stated otherwise.
While we strive to display accurate information, variations in packaging, labeling, instructions, or formulation may occasionally occur due to regional differences or supplier updates. For detailed or manufacturer-specific information, please contact the brand directly or reach out to BOLO Support for assistance.
Unless otherwise stated, all prices displayed on the product page include applicable taxes and import duties.
BOLO operates in accordance with the laws and regulations of United Arab Emirates. Any items found to be restricted or prohibited for sale within the UAE will be cancelled prior to shipment. We take proactive measures to ensure that only products permitted for sale in United Arab Emirates are listed on our website.
All items are shipped by air, and any products classified as “Dangerous Goods (DG)” under IATA regulations will be removed from the order and cancelled.
All orders are processed manually, and we make every effort to process them promptly once confirmed. Products cancelled due to the above reasons will be permanently removed from listings across the website.
Description:
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Schreiber’s Alone: Reflections on Solitary Living was a surprise bestseller in Germany when it was first published in 2021, now translated into English by Ben Fergusson. In it, Schreiber eloquently digs in to the taboo subjects of loneliness and shame. It has to be said that Alone is not a self-help book; it’s an existential book, and all the more transgressive for it. A hybrid between essay and memoir, the author puts to work the writing of various philosophers and poets, including Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sappho to examine the vicissitudes of intimacy, solitude, the solace of friendships. Schreiber is interested in the gap between the life we live and the life that we imagined for ourselves. In this sense, Alone is also a conversation about yearning for an unlived life.” ― New Statesman, Books of the Year 2023
"Schreiber has previously written a biography of Susan Sontag and several volumes of essays, and this is a work suffused with the essayistic sensibility. It blends passages of memoir with scholarly and literary references to explore the author’s existence as a single gay man who often feels he is living outside standard social models. . . . Friendship is, in fact, as much the topic of this book as aloneness. Schreiber writes interestingly about it, drawing a contrast between its polymorphic freedoms and the 'grand narratives' of love and family. . . . Alone follows a 'small' spirit itself; it takes only brief dips into its sources, and does not drive towards any climactic answer. . . . Beautiful images and insights bounce up along the way." ― Guardian, Book of the Day
"A heartfelt memoir on being single, living alone and the existential experience of loneliness. . . . A study of intimacy and independence. . . . Alone is also a very personal narrative, one that covers friendship, sexuality, depression and ageing. Schreiber’s observations are heartfelt, particularly the ideas that even the most acute loneliness can bring us something." ― Financial Times
"Schreiber’s set of linked essays underscores the differences between being lonely and being alone, then brings forward the complex and fluid relationship between those states. . . . Schreiber’s essays have what I can only describe as a lived-in feel. A few quotations here won’t suffice to convey how many shades of experience—of contentment and gloom and everything in between—show through." ― Inside Higher Ed
"Schreiber’s melancholy genius, reminiscent of Thomas Mann, is evident on every page. The delicacy of his insights, his quiet dedication to consciousness, and the calibre of his reflections mark him as a writer to treasure." ― The Australian
"[Schreiber] fuses memoir with intellectual flair, quoting from philosophers and psychoanalysts as he considers the lot of a larger than ever group of people. Hermits and intimacy, the taboo of loneliness and the consolation of friendship—all find their place in a meditation that nods to joy and adversity." ― The Observer (UK)
"The challenges and contours of a life spent largely alone is the subject of Schreiber's reflective, elegantly written book—a bestseller in Germany and recently translated into English. In eight essays, blending personal narrative and psychology, Schreiber explores contemporary solitude. . . . Schreiber writes perceptively of the pain of being 'left behind' in love, and of the cumulative effect of routine loneliness and its insidious, stultifying impact on well-being and broader world view. His descriptions of mixed, murky feelings are evocative, moving and often instantly familiar. . . . Schreiber applies psychology and sociology carefully, never rushing to flimsy conclusions or reaching for false connections. . . . Schreiber's well-read self-reflection elevates Alone. With this thought-provoking, often profound book, he proffers a hand to anyone who may have felt irrevocably, irredeemably alone and says 'me, too.'" ― New Scientist
"The sheer number of us who are lonely is good news (in a way) for a writer of Schreiber’s calibre. I’m not surprised that the German essayist and biographer’s poignant and personal exploration of this taboo subject spent nearly a year on Germany’s bestseller list in 2021. . . . Although divided into chapters on different aspects of loneliness . . . the book’s 152 pages read as one long essay on being alone. . . . Along the way we are treated to snippets from sociologists, psychologists and writers. . . . Schreiber writes movingly about our expectations of what counts as a good life." ― Tablet
"Beautifully written." ― Country Life, "Best Books of 2023"
"Drawing on personal experience, as well as philosophy and sociology, Schreiber explores the tensions between our desire for solitude and our need for companionship and intimacy. The result is a ‘profoundly enlightening look at loneliness in modern life.'” ― Bookseller
"A slim book of 150 pages, it combines his personal experiences and reflections with philosophical, psychological and cultural insights into the subject of living alone. . . . Thoughtful, inclusive, and at times poetic, this is a quietly beautiful book that I can imagine many people, alone or coupled, relishing for its insights." ― Welldoing.org, Book of the Month
“The most moving, memorable books are the ones that attempt to answer questions that the author has been struggling with for his entire life. In Alone, Schreiber—a beautiful writer and, just as important, a beautiful thinker—explores the questions of not just his life, but our age: Who am I if no one loves me? What are the limits of friendship? How does one live with deep and profound loneliness? This is a book for not just this year, but this era.” -- Hanya Yanagihara, author of "A Little Life" and "To Paradise"
“Schreiber has written a brave and searching vindication of single life, a book about the cultivation and tending of solitude, about solitude as an art. Amid the bewildering loss of everydayness imposed by the pandemic, when solitude was not chosen but enforced, Schreiber creates in these pages a moving conversation—with philosophers and poets, theorists and novelists—about the sources of value in our lives. By multiplying our sense of those sources, by insisting on the dignity of models of life that have sometimes been disparaged, this book finally becomes a document of liberation.” -- Garth Greenwell, author of "What Belongs to You" and "Cleanness"
"An intelligent, moving, and heartfelt meditation on the mixed joys and sorrows of solitude. Schreiber's prose is gorgeous, practically silken, and he wears his erudition so lightly that he is the best possible guide on this journey to the elegant lunar landscape of aloneness." -- Lauren Groff, author of "Matrix" and "Fates and Furies"
“Oh my god, I tore through this breathtaking book! Alone is gorgeously, sensitively written and yet so explicit in its honesty and vulnerability. I connected with it deeply and personally—I truly loved it.” -- Jami Attenberg, author of “All This Could Be Yours” and “I Came All This Way to Meet You”
"This is a book to love and to cherish. Schreiber is such a skilled and engaging writer. Without sentimentality, he digs into the taboo subject of loneliness—societal, personal, existential; the salvation of hiking, the many dimensions of friendship, the solace of literature, the value of kindness, the pleasures of solitude. You will meet Nietzsche, Sappho, Arendt—and perhaps you will meet yourself, walking in the hills, thinking about new ways to live." -- Deborah Levy, author of "The Cost of Living" and "August Blue"
"Schreiber’s Alone, immaculately translated from the German by Fergusson, is an examination and celebration of friendship, marred by his need to denigrate more intimate relationships. . . . Acute and fascinating. . . . A book so honest might be desolate. It’s not.” ― Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
Ben Fergusson is an award-winning writer and translator. He is the author of Tales from the Fatherland and An Honest Man.
Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars Friendship is complicated, nurturing, and not what we always think it should be.
Deeply reflective, like a flowing diary, of what loneliness can mean... which takes many shapes and forms in our lives depending on our circumstances. The author is vulnerable and notes he hasn't specific answers or exercises one should do to become less lonely, only that engagement in the daily routines of living, seeing a garden grow, knitting (I can attest to its benefits, giving birth to an object made of one long strand of wool), doing yoga (Pilates for me), is a way to find one's space in a world that can be cruelly crushing. I appreciated the connections to others' work that helped Schreiber on his path and will read Audre Lorde's, Derek Jarmen's and others' works as I work on finding my way.
5.0 out of 5 stars introspective work on living alone
I read this to gain another’s insight into what his journey was in living alone, as I am doing it for the first time in my life. I found it richer than expected, with insight into the relationships that make our life full, and the losses we need to grieve.
1.0 out of 5 stars It's unreadable
A fairly neurotic academic regurgitates quotes from every book he has read about what, for what purpose, finally? He's not exactly living a life alone - he has lots of friends (close and otherwise) and colleagues - he just doesn't have a romantic partner (mentioned numerous times), which he can't seem to admit or reconcile in his life (he would drive me crazy). 127 pages of text and 20 pages of end notes (essentially listing everything he has read on a variety of subjects). Generalizations all over the place, not explored, not cohesively developed. An academic mind run amuck (and I'm a retired academic in an associated field). Made it to page 50. Couldn't take it anymore. Why do publishers publish this stuff???
2.0 out of 5 stars Normalizing awfulness
I would second what kcp said, though I couldn’t get as far in the book as they did before the eye-rolling became exhausting.I call these kinds of productions Pottery Barn, because you can easily imagine the writer’s many chi-chi friends shopping there to furnish and decorate their cheesy lives.[parody] “We sat around the fire pit on the verandah overlooking our gardens, sipping on wine from our private vineyards, reading Rilke out loud to each other while white taffeta curtains billowed in the tall windows of the villa behind us,” yadda yadda yadda.Doesn’t critique the institution of coupledom, as well it should, but certainly reinforces the social media era’s emphasis on collecting “friends” and advertising one’s perfectly curated lifestyle.I’m sure the sequel will be all about finding the One and finally having a date for dinner party invitations.Enough already.
1.0 out of 5 stars Alone? Really alone?
I wanted to like this book. I tried to like this book. It seemed the author was throwing his not-so-alone life in my face. I've been looking for a book that I can relate to, this was not it.
Perspective
It's a very insightful book that helps you shift your perspective on life lived on your own and the value of friendships. It's optimistic but honest and will always be a tool I refer to when my mind attacks itself..
Interesting ideas on living alone
It was not quite what I thought it would be. Reading it I thought the auther was about 30 years old. After I read the book I researched him and it turns out he was about 45 when he wrote it. If I had realised that at the begining it might have had a different meaning.He was also gay. That was OK, but I assumed the book was about living alone for anyone. Some of his ideas and feelings were true for anyone, but may have had different effects for gay people.The central section also concerned the effects of isolation due to Covid restrictions. It was interesting to see how he was affected by the international situation. He raised ideas that had not occured to me.So overall, I learned a great deal about isolation as a single person living on their own, and how it had affected him, particularly as a gay person. It was worth the read.Well written and presented in a way that enabled the reader to understand what was happening to an isolated individual.
Tedious
Tedious. The author seemed to see it as an opportunity to listen and quote from other books he'd read rather than offer any thoughts or contribution.
Addresses some pertinent issues of being alone.
The writing is well drafted and makes for thoughtful reading.There is a good flow to the material and not maudlin in tone.
Not worth your time
Such a poor book with no analysis. Sorry but this is a waste of time…
Similar suggestions by Bolo
More from this brand
Similar items from “Consciousness & Thought”
Share with
Or share with link
https://www.bolo.ae/products/U1789147654