Olivia Laing Books

Acclaimed author Olivia Laing examines the life of renegade psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich to chart an electrifying course through the great freedom movements of the twentieth century.

Olivia Laing is a celebrated writer and critic whose insightful work spans various esteemed publications, showcasing her literary prowess. She has received notable fellowships and residencies, including at Yaddo and the British Library. Her debut book earned multiple award nominations, highlighting her talent for exploring complex themes. Subsequent works, such as The Trip to Echo Spring and The Lonely City, have also garnered critical acclaim, solidifying her position in contemporary literature. Laing resides in Cambridge.

Olivia Laing, prize-winning, bestselling author of The Lonely City and Crudo, returns with a career-spanning collection of essays on the power of art in times of crisis.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 GORDON BURN PRIZECHOSEN AS 'BOOK OF THE YEAR' BYObserverGuardianTelegraphIrish TimesNew StatesmanTimes Literary SupplementHeraldWhen Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by this most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly between the works and lives of some of the city's most compelling artists, Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone, illuminating not only the causes of loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed.

An odyssey along the banks of the River Ouse, from source to sea; a profound and haunting reflection on history and landscape by one of the most important writers of modern non-fiction

Originally published: Great Britain: Canongate Books, 2013.

A commitment-phobic writer spends the summer of 2017--the first summer of her forties--adjusting to the idea of getting married at a time when truth is dead, fascism is rising, and one rogue tweet from the president could launch a nuclear war.

To the River is the story of the Ouse, the Sussex river in which Virginia Woolf drowned in 1941. One midsummer week over sixty years later, Olivia Laing walked Woolf's river from source to sea. The result is a passionate investigation into how history resides in a landscape - and how ghosts never quite leave the places they love. Along the way, Laing explores the roles rivers play in human lives, tracing their intricate flow through literature and mythology alike. To the River excavates all sorts of stories from the Ouse's marshy banks, from the brutal Barons' War of the thirteenth century to the 'Dinosaur Hunters', the nineteenth-century amateur naturalists who first cracked the fossil code. Central among these ghosts is, of course, Virginia Woolf herself: her life, her writing and her watery death. Woolf is the most constant companion on Laing's journey, and To the River can be read in part as a biography of this extraordinary English writer, refracted back through the river she loved. But other writers float through these pages too - among them Iris Murdoch, Shakespeare, Homer and Kenneth Grahame, author of the riverside classic The Wind in the Willows. The result is a wonderfully discursive read - which interweaves biography, history, nature writing and memoir, driven by Laing's deep understanding of science and cultural history. It's a beautiful, lyrical work that marks the arrival of a major new writer.

The narrative explores the harrowing journeys of individuals fleeing persecution and seeking asylum in the UK. Through a modern retelling inspired by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, it highlights the struggles of those who face indefinite detention, emphasizing their loss and longing for belonging. The collection features contributions from poets and novelists, creating a platform for these voices to be heard. Central to the themes are hospitality and the importance of listening, fostering a sense of community and understanding amidst the challenges of seeking refuge.

The Garden Against Time is the No.1 Sunday Times bestseller from acclaimed writer Olivia Laing; a passionate, epic exploration of the power and possibilities of gardens. 'What a wonderful book this is' - Nigel Slater When Olivia Laing began to restore a walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants, the work drew them into an exhilarating investigation of paradise and its long association with gardens. Moving between the real and the imagined, from Milton's Paradise Lost to a wartime sanctuary in Italy, to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth. But the story of the garden can also be a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams, from the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the vision of a common Eden cultivated by William Morris. New modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of radical change. 'This book is what we need right now: paradise, regained' - Philip Hoare 'Every generation gets one perfect book about gardens and this is ours' - Julia Bell 'Prepare yourself to be enchanted' - Jilly Cooper 'The most magical writing' - Jeremy Lee 'I felt doubly alive after reading it' - Celia Paul 'Quite literally unputdownable' - Jinny Blom 'A book for thinking gardeners everywhere' - Mary Keen