Synopsis
'Intensely moving, vital and artful' - Guardian
'A dizzying ride . . . both timely and beguiling' - Sunday Times
From the award-winning author of Crudo, this is an exhilarating and eminently readable study of the long struggle for bodily freedom – from gay rights and sexual liberation to feminism and the civil rights movement.
Drawing on their own experiences in protest and travelling from Weimar Berlin to the prisons of McCarthy-era America, Laing grapples with some of the most significant and complicated figures of the past century, among them Nina Simone, Sigmund Freud, Susan Sontag and Malcolm X.
At a time when basic rights are once again in danger, Everybody is a crucial examination of the forces arranged against freedom – and a celebration of how ordinary human bodies can resist oppression and reshape the world.
Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize.
'An ambitious, absorbing achievement that will make your brain hum' – Evening Standard
'Sets her alongside the likes of Arundhati Roy, John Berger and James Baldwin' – Financial Times
Details
Reviews
“Astonishing . . . I love this book”Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias
“Bristles with energy and understanding as it charts the body’s pleasures and pains, its fragilities, and endurance in the long 20th century . . . This really is a book for everybody”Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and Sad
“Olivia Laing writes so well and engagingly”Philippa Perry, author of How to Stay Sane
“Olivia Laing’s mind is a thrill to watch”Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body























