Description
Book SynopsisA Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Nonfiction Book of Winter 2020 and a
Real Simple Best Book of 2020 (So Far)
A revelatory investigation of friendship, with profound implications for our understanding of what humans and animals alike need to thrive across a lifetime.
Trade Review"Accessible and enlightening...By highlighting the importance of human connection, Denworth has crafted a worthy call to action." -- Barbara King - Washington Post
"[Denworth] has a solid command of the complex material before her and a seemingly effortless ability to make it not just digestible but engaging... [She] sticks to the science, calmly telling us the truth no matter what we need to hear. What else are friends for?" -- Daniel Akst - Wall Street Journal
"The power of friendship—in many ways the most essential of our relationships—has long been underestimated. It's an absolute pleasure to see Lydia Denworth do it justice in this lovely, insightful, and important book." -- Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Poison Squad
"Friendship was once mocked as a naive notion, irrelevant in our species and nonexistent in others. In her lively, personable style, Lydia Denworth reviews what we know about the benefits of close relationships and their long evolutionary history" -- Frans de Waal, author of Mama’s Last Hug
"The science of friendship has grown remarkably rich in recent years, with scientists studying everything from the chemicals that create bonds in our brains to the friendships animals make for years on end. There's a deep evolutionary story to friendship now, and Lydia Denworth tells it in clear, lyrical prose." -- Carl Zimmer, author of She Has Her Mother's Laugh
"Critical and convincing... Denworth’s work achieves the best of science writing by making complicated concepts clear. She uses intelligent observation, empathy, and curiosity to offer a friendship manifesto that will absolutely affect readers' own personal approaches to friendship." -- Booklist (starred review)
"In addition to examining the scientific underpinnings of friendship, Denworth capably demonstrates how loneliness...is truly a health- and life-threatening condition, and there are things to be done to avoid it. Convincing evidence that evolution endowed us with a need for friends, support, comfort, stimulation, and, ultimately, happiness." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Denworth draws several striking conclusions...[
Friendship] provide[s] an effective introduction to its subject." -- Publishers Weekly
"A sweeping, precise, and engaging narrative about our primordial capacity for friendship. If you care about what really matters in life, read this fantastic natural history of human friendship." -- Nicholas A. Christakis, author of Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
"I can think of no better rebuke to today’s success-obsessed brand of parenting than Denworth’s clarion call for friendship. Her convincing narration of the science shows that for our kids to live happily ever after, and successfully too, we must let them spend many more afternoons with friends." -- Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of How to Raise an Adult
