When Vivek H. Murthy accepted the role of Surgeon General under Obama, he thought his priorities might be the opioid crisis or obesity. Instead, he discovered a much larger underlying problem: loneliness. It is a global health crisis, and it is killing us. So how can we treat it?

In this book, Dr Murthy uncovers the proportions of this epidemic, and explores the root causes and devastating effects of loneliness. But most importantly, he discovers a solution that can be applied to our individual lives, and inform how we raise our children, think about work, and create communities. Real human connection is not just nice, he shows, it is essential to our lives.

From social support groups in Okinawa, to welcoming sheds for older men in Australia and the UK, via Phone Pal programmes in California, Murthy looks at efforts to combat loneliness and create community around the world and what they can teach us about doing so in our own lives. Part personal journey, part medical exploration, part social toolkit, this essential book shows how together we can learn to build a more connected, less lonely world.