DESCRIPTION

From the acclaimed author of Imagine Wanting Only This--a timely and moving meditation on isolation and longing, both as individuals and as a society

There is a silent epidemic in America: loneliness. Shameful to talk about and often misunderstood, loneliness is everywhere, from the most major of metropolises to the smallest of towns.

In Seek You, Kristen Radtke's wide-ranging exploration of our inner lives and public selves, Radtke digs into the ways in which we attempt to feel closer to one another, and the distance that remains. Through the lenses of gender and violence, technology and art, Radtke ushers us through a history of loneliness and longing, and shares what feels impossible to share.

Ranging from the invention of the laugh-track to the rise of Instagram, the bootstrap-pulling cowboy to the brutal experiments of Harry Harlow, Radtke investigates why we engage with each other, and what we risk when we turn away. With her distinctive, emotionally-charged drawings and deeply empathetic prose, Kristen Radtke masterfully shines a light on some of our most vulnerable and sublime moments, and asks how we might keep the spaces between us from splitting entirely.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

is the author of the graphic nonfiction books Seek You and Imagine Wanting Only This. The recipient of a 2019 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, Radtke is the art director and deputy publisher of The Believer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, and Harper's, among many other publications.

REVIEWS

"Seek You stunned me. Kristen Radtke, one of the best of our literary artists, shines her brilliant light into modern America's experiment in loneliness with this supremely elegant and devastating book. It was my companion during a long, dark night of the soul; I emerged grateful to have had such sleekness and wit, such calm intelligence, to guide me back to daylight."
--Lauren Groff, author of Florida

"If you've ever felt alone in America, this is the book you have been waiting to hold, and the one that will hold you back."
--Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk

"Kristen Radtke's Seek You seems almost to invent something brand new: the comic strip feature documentary? The long-form graphic essay? I dunno, and it really doesn't matter, because the humanity so keenly summed up in every line and mark of Radtke's hand transcendently transmutes both the seriousness of her investigatory aim and the genuine desperation which underpins its timely yet universal thesis--all the while magnified by the skill, empathy and great intelligence of its author."
--Chris Ware, author of Rusty Brown

"A meditation on isolation and longing, examines the silent epidemic of loneliness in America, from the invention of the laugh-track to the unethical experiments of Harry Harlow. Radtke is a writer of enviable emotional intelligence, and one of our most elegant and virtuosic artists of devastation. --Dan Sheehan, Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2021