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Solitude

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What to expect

Random House presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Solitude by Michael Harris, read by Kerry Shale.

'I came away from this book a better human being. Michael Harris's take on existence is calm, unique, and makes one's soul feel good.' Douglas Coupland


Solitude is a rapidly vanishing experience. Our society now embraces sharing like never before: time alone is being forced out of our lives by the constant pings of smartphones and prods of social media. But what if being alone still has something to offer us – something we have forgotten, but that we still desperately need?

In Solitude, award-winning author Michael Harris examines why being alone matters now more than ever before. He reflects on the paradoxical feeling of isolation that emerges from being constantly connected – and on how learning the beauty of solitude can help us escape it. After all, it is when we are alone that we realise the greatest truths about ourselves. Being alone – really alone – could be the only antidote to the frenzy of our digital age.

Rich with stories about the transformative power of solitude, and drawing on the research of the world's leading neuroscientists and behavioural psychologists, Solitude offers a timely and profound exploration of how to be alone – and why it matters for us all.




'A timely, eloquent provocation to daydream and wander.' Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall

Critics Review

The leading thinker about technology’s corrupting influence on our collective psyche.
Newsweek
An elegant, thoughtful book . . . beautifully expresses the importance and experience of liberation from the battery-hen life of constant connection and crowds.
Daily Mail
A compelling study of the subtle ways in which modern life and technologies have transformed our behaviour and sense of self . . . The strength of Harris’s argument lies in his showing how seemingly harmless new technologies insidiously influence our ways of being . . . Harris proposes ways in which we can discover ourselves within an increasingly digitally connected world.
Times Literary Supplement
I came away from this book a better human being. Michael Harris’s take on existence is calm, unique, and makes one's soul feel good yet never once does he rely on feel-good techniques.
Douglas Coupland
A timely, eloquent provocation to daydream and wander.
Nathan Filer, author of THE SHOCK OF THE FALL
A poetic, contemplative journey into the benefits of solo sojourning. The book – which weaves together personal anecdotes and fascinating research – makes a convincing argument for stepping away from the crowd (and your even more crowded phone) and scheduling some soul-resetting me time.
ELLE
Harris's book isn’t preachy; rather, it recasts small lifestyle changes as part of a struggle to regain that sense of self . . . It speaks to a long overdue conversation we still haven't properly had in our society.
VICE
Harris has an intuition that being alone with ourselves, paying attention to inner silence and being able to experience outer silence, is an essential part of being human . . . Thick with fact and argument and some fine writing.
New Statesman
An insightful, lively meditation on why this increasingly scarce component of our lives should be preserved.
Globe and Mail
Elegant, accessible and often hilarious.
Chicago Tribune
Author Michael Harris
Narrator Kerry Shale
Duration 6 hours and 23 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781473552234
Format Audiobook
Publisher Random House
Genre Ethical issues: scientific, technological and medical developments, Impact of science and technology on society, Popular philosophy, Popular psychology
Availability AU, GB, IE

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