The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers

This is a real classic, a dazzling work in both the tradition and the class of John Steinbeck.

The focus of the story is John Singer, a deaf mute who lives in a town in the southern states in the late 1930s. Around him are four diverse characters, all of whom confide in Singer and view him as a kind of savant, although there's really no reason to think so. The terrible irony is that each of the quartet believes themselves to have found a true soulmate, but they are in fact confiding in a tabula rasa of their own construction.

The characters are utterly convincing and their stories are moving and sad, though not without humour. The writing is elegant and insightful, the mood is beautifully maintained and the pacing is spot on. Magnificent.