In "Last Train Home, " Mead paints a simple but ambivalent portrait of a late-night train ride in which fleeting companionship is unmistakably intertwined with loneliness.

NPR: David Mead: Warm And Bittersweet

Other factors involved in loneliness include individuals' levels of social skill, fear of rejection, and self-confidence, Leary said.

CNN: Feeling lonely? Genes might be at fault

It was loneliness that had led him to seek a conversation on a restaurant patio long past the lunch hour, as it was loneliness that had made her empty the refrigerator in the cottage and pack her belongings into five mega-sized black plastic garbage bags and drop them outside a Goodwill early one morning.

NEWYORKER: Alone