Why do we often long for solitude but dread loneliness? What happens when the walls we build around ourselves are suddenly removed--or made impenetrable? If privacy is something we count on as a basic right, why are our laws, technology and life-styles increasingly chipping it away? These are among the questions Halpern eloquently explores in these original essays. --back cover

Addresses the chronic loneliness affecting a high percentage of people today, discussing the vulnerabilities of high-pressure, tech-driven environments and how to view solitude through a spiritual lens.

For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So, in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to...

Elizabeth and Jackson Shore married young, raised two daughters, and weathered the storms of youth as they built a future together. But after the children leave home, they quietly drift apart. When Jack accepts a new job across country Elizabeth follows. The sudden death of her father changes everything. Grieving and alone, she retreats to an isolated beach house where she packs away the last remnants of her parents' lives. She sees their tender story...

Boot and Shoe are dogs that live in the same house, eat from the same bowl, and sleep in the same bed but spend their days on separate porches until a squirrel mixes things up.

"A celebration of the joy and comfort to be found in alone time and the joy and comfort that a friend can bring"--

Though playing with a friend can be a great deal of fun, it's good to be alone sometimes too.

With a foreword by Nicholas Carr, author of the Pulitzer Prize–finalist The Shallows. Today, society embraces sharing like never before. Fueled by our dependence on mobile devices and social media, we have created an ecosystem of obsessive connection. Many of us now lead lives of strangely crowded isolation: we are always linked, but only shallowly so. The capacity to be alone, properly alone, is one of life's subtlest skills. Real solitude is...

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So, in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to...

While enjoying his solitary trek through the barnyard, Gus the gosling finds three small eggs that could possibly hold his perfect companions inside.--