Tara Darby, ‘The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter’

Darby’s Literary Journey series recounts her travels through towns and cities used as settings in books of American 20th century literature. The journey featured in this publication takes her to the American South to follow the plot and locations of Carson McCullers’ 1940 novel “The Night is a Lonely Hunter”. The story centers on the experiences of a deaf man, John Singer, and the people he meets in a 1930s mill town. It was the first in a string of works by McCullers to give voice to the rejected, forgotten, mistreated and oppressed.

Darby’s poignant images are accompanied by bursts of her own diaristic text which connect the experiences she has on her road trip with the text of the novel.