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Synopsis

The Alone to the Alone by Gwyn Thomas

The Alone to the Alone was first published in 1947. It came, Gwyn Thomas recalled, as the “last gasp of the first violent mood” of creation with which he had written his early masterpieces Oscar and The Dark Philosophers. The Alone to the Alone unites Gwyn Thomas’ lyrical and philosophical flights of narrative in a satire whose savagery is only relieved by irrepressible laughter.

It is Gwyn Thomas’ most shaped work: the underlying meaning of South Wales' history is not so much documented as laid bare for universal dissection and dissemination. The novel, with its distinctive plural narration, is a choric commentary on human illusion and knowledge, on power and its attendant deprivation, on dreams and their destruction. The Alone to the Alone is History as Carnival and, in Gwyn Thomas’ unique voice, a comic vision of humanity that recognises no geographical boundaries.

“As if Thomas Hardy met Damon Runyon over a loving cup of small beer.” - New York Herald Tribune, 1947

Reviews of The Alone to the Alone

	13 December 2008
Reviewer: Alfred Hicking Publication: The Guardian
Gwyn Thomas was the wit of the Welsh valleys and a popular Brains Trust panellist who observed: "There are still parts of Wales where the only concession to gaiety is a striped shroud." Set amid the grinding poverty of the Rhondda during the Great Depression, this anecdotal satire follows the adventures of Thomas's Dark Philosophers: village elders who sit on a wall... Alfred Hicking

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