All the Lonely People

All The Lonely People | Book Thoughts “The moment it had dawned on him that he wasn’t an island. That, in spite of himself, he missed the company of other human beings.” Hubert Hezekiah Bird is a fictional man with a very non-fictional story of the journey as an immigrant, husband, father and friend. He lifts right off the page as you begin to read between his past and present day, all the way to the end. This novel pierced my heart and left me in a flood of tears as it touches the truth about loneliness and what a community can really do. Having been drawn to the cover by title and by the artwork as it looks a lot like my late Papa…. A black man in the 1950s falling in love with a white English women and the pain found in what is not deemed normal or right to the world. Abandonment. Children forging different paths. One honorable and one dragged deep into substance abuse. Friendships that come and go. The raw emotional toll to see your loved one slowly become someone else with the deadly battle of dementia. A knock on the door from a relentless human being searching for the same thing. There’s so much more.. but I leave you with two quotes that truly wrecked me… “Gus; this life is too much.” “You see, the key to helping other people out of them loneliness is nothing more difficult than good old-fashioned perseverance. It’s not always easy, me know that, but you’ve got to be willing to keep doors open, to carry on trying even if it doesn’t look like it’s working. You’ve got to refuse to give up on people, even if them given up on themselves.”

I loved this book! coming from the Caribbean and having lived in England in the late 50s. I found it totally relatable. It’s a 9/10 for me, even though I didn’t like the ending.

This was heart warming. The Audible was excellent!