'She has examined the heart of man with an understanding ... that no other writer can hope to surpass' Tennessee Williams
Often cited as one of the great novels of twentieth-century American fiction, Carson McCullers' prodigious first novel was published to instant acclaim when she was just twenty-three. Set in a small town in the middle of the deep South, it is the story of John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute, and a disparate group of people who are drawn towards his kind, sympathetic nature. The owner of the café where Singer eats every day, a young girl desperate to grow up, an angry socialist drunkard, a frustrated black doctor: each pours their heart out to Singer, their silent confidant, and he in turn changes their disenchanted lives in ways the could never imagine. Moving, sensitive and deeply humane, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter explores loneliness, the human need for understanding and the search for love.
The greatest prose writer that the South produced ... She has examined the heart of man with an understanding that no other writer can hope to surpass -- Tennessee Williams
A remarkable book ... [McCullers] writes with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming ― The New York Times
Of all the Southern writers, she is the most apt to endure -- Gore Vidal
Again [McCullers] shows a sort of subterranean and ageless instinct for probing the hidden in men's hearts and minds ― New York Herald-Tribune
