Mike Gayle's charming novel All the Lonely People introduces us to Hubert Bird, an 82-year-old widower who lives alone in Bromley (a London borough) with just his cat for company. He leads an isolated existence, his only meaningful contact a weekly phone call with his daughter, Rose, who moved to Australia nearly 20 years prior. This starts to change when single mother Ashleigh moves in next door with her toddler, Layla. The effervescent young woman is determined to know her neighbors, and as Hubert reluctantly lets her into his life, his world changes in ways he couldn't have imagined.

Alternating with this storyline is the tale of Hubert's past, beginning with his departure from Jamaica when he was in his early 20s. Part of the "Windrush generation" (see Beyond the Book), Hubert joins his friend Gus in England as a low-wage laborer, and over the ensuing years marries, has children ...