Loner

Lona has dropped out of art school and no one is quite sure why, least of all Lona. It’s just that nothing in her life seems to make sense anymore, including art. She spends her days sneaking into the darkroom at her old school to develop photographs and her nights DJ-ing at the local roller disco.

Her aimlessness terrifies her, but everyone else appears oblivious to her fears: her parents are bewildered by her sudden lack of ambition, her brother is preoccupied with his new girlfriend, and her best friend Tab seems to be drifting away. Even a budding relationship with a bass-playing, cello-shredding med student isn’t enough to shake her existential angst.

Lona knows it’s up to her to figure out what she wants to do with her life: the problem is, she has absolutely no idea where to start.


Georgina Young is a writer and designer from Melbourne. She has previously had her work published in Voiceworks magazine, as well as in Branches, an anthology published by the Bowen Street Press. Loner is her first novel.

‘Georgina Young made me squirm and swoon and sigh as I fell head over heels for the exquisite paradoxes of her protagonist. Lona wonders why she can never say exactly the thing she means—lucky for us, we have Young, and she articulates all those things with smarts and humour and grace. This is a book to push into the hands of everyone you know, especially those who ever had trouble knowing themselves.’ Kate Mildenhall

‘I loved this razor-sharp, whip-smart, exquisitely funny debut.’ Nina Kenwood

‘Loner is a very clever, unconventional and hilarious coming-of-age story. I loved it!’ Eliza Henry-Jones

'A compassionate and clever story for dropouts and screw-ups. Georgina Young has bottled the fears and feelings of every young woman who has had to learn to stop hiding inside herself.’ Brodie Lancaster