Even before a global pandemic introduced us to terms like social distancing, loneliness was already becoming the defining condition of the twenty-first century.

But it's also one we have the power to reverse.

Combining a decade of research with first-hand reporting, Noreena Hertz takes us from a 'how to communicate in real life class for smartphone-addicted university students to bouncy castles at Belgian far-right gatherings, from paying for cuddles in the U.S. to nursing home residents knitting bonnets for their robot caregivers in Japan.

The Lonely Century explores how our increasing dependence on technology, radical changes to the workplace and decades of policies th