Only connect we are told. Yet one only has to look around on Valentine's Day for a sobering reminder that there is rather less intimacy in the world than there appears to be. Popular culture assures us that couples, friends, family members and even strangers on a train can easily find that sense of deep connection and mutual understanding. Yet in an age of consumption and new media where friending has become a verb, genuine intimacy seems harder to find than ever. Drawing on novels and films as well as psychology, sociology and philosophy, Ziyad Marar offers four lenses through which to...