How to be alone

a breathtaking duet of spare, poetic novellas documenting the double-edged sword of self-acceptance.

heather nolan returns with how to be alone, a pair of novellas that depict the euphoric highs of a queer awakening and the crushing lows of feeling othered in a world that isn’t built for you. in this short but weighty book, nolan explores themes such as isolation, trauma, and loss against the vibrant streets of montreal. here, in a city famous for bringing people together, the streets serve as a palette with a different purpose: a foil for those struggling to connect with the world around them.

how to be alone on boulevard saint-laurent follows a fragmented trail left by kaitlin, a narrator who finds moments of astonishing absurdity and beauty in the mundane as she wanders along boulevard saint-laurent. in how to be alone on rue sainte catherine, lev moves to the gay village in montreal to escape his mother, but what he finds is not what he expected.

a writer of uncommon talent, nolan creates characters that reveal themselves through an understated confessional — the empty spaces holding meaning as much as the worded ones.