{"product_id":"lonely-crowds-hardcover","title":"Lonely Crowds Hardcover | Stephanie Wambugu","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSome friendships make you who you are. This becomes considerably more complicated when you’re not sure you like who they made you.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchor\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRuth and Maria meet as girls, two outsiders attending the same Catholic school on scholarship, and quickly form the kind of friendship that becomes less a relationship than an organizing principle. They grow up together, go to college, and eventually find themselves in New York’s early-1990s art world, where being talented is useful but wanting to be talented might be even more consuming. Maria begins to succeed as an artist while Ruth remains caught in her orbit, and the intimacy that once bound them together becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish from rivalry, desire, dependence, and ambition. Stephanie Wambugu’s \u003cem\u003eLonely Crowds\u003c\/em\u003e is about art and class and becoming an adult, but mostly it’s about the uncomfortable possibility that loving someone and comparing yourself to them can occupy exactly the same space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWritten by Stephanie Wambugu\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDebut novel\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHardcover\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSet partly within New York City’s early-1990s art world\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eExplores friendship, obsession, desire, class, ambition + artistic identity\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eNamed one of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2025\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew York Magazine's Best Books of the Year\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVulture's Best Books of 2025\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWinner of the Publishing Triangle’s Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNational Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFinalist for the Barnes \u0026amp; Noble Discover Prize, NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award + VCU Cabell First Novelist Award\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e304 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublished by Little, Brown and Company\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublication date: July 29, 2025\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eISBN: 9780316581332\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author:  Stephanie Wambugu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStephanie Wambugu was born in Mombasa, Kenya, grew up in Rhode Island, and now lives and works in New York City. She received her MFA from Columbia University, worked as a bookseller and at the Noguchi Museum while writing \u003cem\u003eLonely Crowds\u003c\/em\u003e, and is an editor at \u003cem\u003eJoyland\u003c\/em\u003e. Wambugu has said the novel began with the voice of Ruth, a middle-aged painter looking back on her life, while Wambugu herself was trying to figure out what it meant to build a life as an artist. \u003cem\u003eLonely Crowds\u003c\/em\u003e is her first novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53777833329003,"sku":"9780316581332","price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1000\/6534\/5899\/files\/Lonely_Crowds_Hardcover-Photoroom.jpg?v=1787855742","url":"https:\/\/www.goodbountythestore.com\/products\/lonely-crowds-hardcover","provider":"Good Bounty the Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}