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Top 5 books about lonely lives

Andrew Mulligan, author of Train Man, considers literary character left alone.

Andrew Mulligan, author of Train Man

The Accidental Tourist

by Anne Tyler

A man goes slowly mad as trusted relationships run out of steam. The beauty of the novel is that we realise he’s disintegrating; he doesn’t.

Under the Volcano

by Malcolm Lowry

Reading this is like climbing a volcano. It’s not easy, and I tried and failed several times. One you’re in, though – you’re in. There is no book on alcoholism like it: you approach the crater, and look right down into the inferno.

Carrie’s War

by Nina Bawden

A 1970s children’s chestnut. Carrie is an evacuee, sent to a tiny village in Wales. Her war is not about bombs and the Home Guard: it’s the conflict of terminally isolated, troubled adults who have made a hell for themselves. It’s a glorious, wise book.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

by John Boyne

Another seminal, so-called children’s book. Young Bruno is moving to Poland in 1939. His dad’s got a fabulous new job, running a Nazi death-camp – and Bruno has no idea what’s going on. It’s about children reaching through their isolation, in a context of chilling, rising horror.

A House for Mr Biswas

by VS Naipaul

Apparently Naipaul came to hate his masterpiece and most accessible book, Dickensian in its sweep. The setting is Trinidad; we follow a family man who’s simply trying to build a house for his family. His constant failures allow us into a world of rivalry, pettiness and stifling tradition. Failure, however, is the launch pad to triumph. I read it every year.

Train Man
Andrew Mulligan's Train Man

Andrew Mulligan’s Train Man is out now (Chatto & Windus, £12.99)

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