<Tr> <Th> Media type </Th> <Td> Print (hardcover) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Pages </Th> <Td> 356 pp </Td> </Tr> <P> The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) is the début novel by the American author Carson McCullers; she was 23 at the time of publication . It is about a deaf man named John Singer who does not speak, and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the US state of Georgia . </P> <P> The book begins with a focus on the relationship between two close friends, John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulous . The two are described as deaf - mutes who have lived together for several years . Antonapoulous becomes mentally ill, misbehaves, and despite attempts at intervention from Singer, is eventually put into an insane asylum away from town . Now alone, Singer moves into a new room . </P>

Where does the heart is a lonely hunter take place