Here, available for the first time in the UK, is the book in which Claudia Rankine first developed the ‘American Lyric’ form which makes her Forward Prize-winning collection Citizen so distinctive: an original combination of poetry, lyric essay, photography and visual art, virtuosically deployed. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely is Rankine’s meditation on the self bewildered by race riots, terrorism, medicated depression and television’s ubiquitous influence. Written during George W. Bush’s presidency in an America still reeling from the 9/11 attacks and charging headlong into war in Iraq, this is an early 21st-century work of great wit, intelligence and depth of feeling, with urgent lessons for the present.