First published in 1940, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was writer Carson McCullers’ debut novel. Published when she was just 23, the book immediately announced a new literary talent with a surprisingly keen eye for the human condition.

Set in an anonymous town in the American South, the book explores the lives of a disparate series of characters who are all linked by their individual friendship with John Singer, a mysterious deaf man whose past is a mystery to them.

The book deals heavily with themes of isolation but yet is very much a product and part of its time. The rise of fascism and the underground radicalism of the revolutionary left and black liberation movements are both referenced. The book is also heavily shrouded in the apartheid oppression of Southern society at that time, which casts a pall over the actions of all the characters.

As important as this context is, though, the real joy of this book comes from the fabulously realised characters. The book focuses on each character in turn, their experiences, their inner thoughts and their relationship with John Singer. All of the characters are genuinely involving and interesting, a rare feat I think for a novel to achieve.

Binding all of the characters together is John Singer. In the book, John Singer becomes the person each character can speak to plainly about their fears and thoughts and hopes. His ability to ‘listen’ without criticism is ironic, given his deafness. His refusal to speak allows each of them to imagine their own idealised version of who they want him to be.

The great irony of the book is that, far from being the messianic figure they see in him, John is in his own way as troubled and yearning for comfort as the rest of them. He fails to understand their attitudes and problems despite spending significant amounts of time with them. In his turn, John is heavily reliant spiritually on his old friend who has been placed in a mental health institution.

We see that John treats his friend, who in his turn disdains John’s kind presents and thoughts, with the same reverence that the other characters show to him. In this way, McCullers seems to be saying that we all are searching for something and someone special, but we rarely find mutual happiness in one another. If I have one small criticism of the book, it is that she presents no counter-examples to represent that many people do make genuine and mutual connections with other people and find a shared happiness, if only for a time.

Despite the heavy subject matter the plot moves on with several important twists and events, a contrast with lesser books that disdain plot movement in favour of more abstract composition.

It is no surprise that the book was well received when it was published, but what is important is that the book continues to resonate with the problems and hardships of our time. Throughout, McCullers is able to tie the spiritual with the heart-breakingly practical, the thoughts and dreams of the characters with the hard-world of dimes and cents that they need to sustain themselves. In doing so, the book is a wonderful exploration of what it means to be human and what it means to try and love in a world where so much time is spent in unimportant things.