Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

by Gail Honeyman

I have always taken great pride in managing my life alone. I’m a sole survivor—I’m Eleanor Oliphant.

These days, loneliness is the new cancer—a shameful, embarrassing thing, brought upon yourself in some obscure way. A fearful, incurable thing, so horrifying that you dare not mention it; other people don’t want to hear the word spoken aloud for fear that they might too be afflicted, or that it might tempt fate into visiting a similar horror upon