The Geography of LonelinesS

Tracey McIntire is fourteen when her beloved grandmother dies of cancer. Heartbroken, she vows to carry on her grandmother’s community-centered way of life by creating a neighborhood where no one has to be alone.

Decades later, loneliness has become an epidemic. Lauren Marks, a former advertising executive starting over after a painful divorce, crosses paths on a hiking trail with Valerie Baldwin, a hospital volunteer who brightens her patients’ lives while quietly battling depression. Their conversation lasts only minutes, but their lives will intersect again.

Then there’s Wanda Jackson, a critical care nurse who returns each night to an empty house; Jeanne Papineau, a widow learning how to live with grief; and a growing cast of people carrying their own private loneliness. Each is looking, knowingly or not, for connection. Through a series of chance encounters and unexpected friendships, their separate lives begin to converge.

Eventually, they will find their way to Tracey’s long-held vision: a community built on the simple, radical idea that no one should have to be alone.

PRAISE FOR THE GEOGRAPHY OF LONELINESS:

“Sometimes we don’t know where we’re going until we arrive. Such is the case for the women in Ren Barrie’s novel, The Geography of Loneliness. Each character has her story, and each will touch you as Barrie delicately portrays lives lived amidst loneliness and the desire for connection. I celebrate the glorious ending of this masterfully plotted book.”

— Lee Martin, author of the Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Bright Forever

“This debut marks Ren Barrie as a natural storyteller. With sensitive attention to our deepest human need for love and connection, The Geography of Loneliness explores the truest meaning of community. Barrie’s writing is warm, compassionate, and genuine. Each character feels like a sister, an aunt, a friend—a part of myself. There is healing in these words for all of us. I absolutely fell in love with this novel!”                       

— Diane Les Becquets, National Best-Selling Author of Where the Water Meets the Sky

“With warm, compassionate prose, The Geography of Loneliness asks a beautiful and timely question: What if the people we need are already all around us, and we simply haven’t learned how to find one another? A hopeful, moving story about the unexpected connections that can turn loneliness into belonging.”

—Ann Garvin, USA Today Bestselling Author of I Thought You Said This Would Work

“Ren Barrie has written a story so engaging that it is only later that the reader realizes the ancient lesson: unawares, people striving to fill a need in another’s life fill a need in their own. A handful of women from vastly different backgrounds whose only real bond is their lack of any real bonds build a kind of unlikely friendship fort in an indifferent world that succeeds against the odds, with drama to spare. Does this book read like a parable? No, it does not. It reads like a story of loss redeemed and the enduring proof of what Lennon and McCartney wrote so long ago, that the love we take is equal to the love we make.”

—Jacquelyn Mitchard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 23 books

COMING MAY 4, 2027 - PANHANDLE CREEK PRESS