Cruel Indifference

STEPHANIE WAMBUGU’S debut novel, Lonely Crowds, charts decades of disillusionment: promises broken among the cold, unenlightening halls of higher education; the inevitable dissipation of relationships and ambitions. It’s a book of obsession and quiet brutality, interrogating what it means to chase goals—artistic success, fulfilling friendships—that may, ultimately, hold no real value. The novel’s narrator, Ruth, grows up in Providence, Rhode Island, as the only daughter of Kenyan immigrants. A tentatively pursued friendship with her beguiling neighbor Maria blossoms into a passionate bond, only to culminate in a devastating separation when, as adults, the two relocate to New York and vie for status among the city’s artistic elites.