Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2021
336 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
Lauren Groff, Elizabeth Kolbert, Pam Houston, Pico Iyer, T Kira Madden, Gregory Pardlo, Maggie Shipstead, and Peter Orner are among the 65 writers who grapple with this mystery: How can an ephemeral encounter leave an eternal mark?
When Colleen Kinder put out a call for authors to "write a letter to a stranger who haunts you," she opened the floodgates. The responses—intimate and addictive, all in the form of letters, all written in the second person—began pouring in. These short, insightful essays by today's best literary minds are organized around such themes as Gratitude, Wonder, and Farewell, and guide us both across the globe and through the mysteries of human connection.
Bestselling author Leslie Jamison, who provides the foreword, reveals she has been haunted for years by a traveling magician she met in Nicaragua. Journalist Ted Conover writes his missive to a stranger he met on a New Yorker assignment in Rwanda. From the story of Vanessa Hua's shoe shopper in China to the tale of Michelle Tea's encounter in a Texas tattoo parlor, these pieces are replete with observations about how to live and what to seek, and how a stranger's loaded glance, shared smile, or question posed can alter the course of our lives. Moving and unforgettable, Letter to a Stranger is an irresistible read for any literary traveler and the perfect gift for anyone who is haunted by a person they met once but will remember forever.
"The power of brief encounters is illuminated in this moving collection from essayist and editor Kinder...Though the prompt is the same, the premise never gets tired, with the globe-trotting writers covering the gamut from strangers who offered a sense of safety or a sense of chaos. Bright and hopeful, this anthology is sure to delight avid travelers." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"While many of the essays have an ephemeral quality, some will stick with even the most jaded of reader...Good stories from writers both popular and unknown, guaranteed to fill you with wanderlust." - Kirkus Reviews
"Letter to a Stranger is nothing less than a celebration of the adventure that is other people." - Ariel Levy, author of The Rules Do Not Apply
"The symphony of voices in Letter to a Stranger is at times rousing and exhilarating, at other times piercing and plaintive. The human condition is on full display, here in these fleeting glimpses of our essential connectedness. This beautiful book is a perfect one for our times. It reminds us that we are witnesses to one another's joys and heartaches, even if we never exchange a word." - Dani Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of Inheritance
"By turns, moving, hilarious, and scary, this collection of taut fiery essays is a sprint around the world—all keyhole portraits of unexpected brushes with that one character who flares with meaning." - Jack Hitt, author of Bunch of Amateurs
This information about Letter to a Stranger was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Colleen Kinder is an essayist and editor whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, National Geographic Traveler, Salon.com, and The Best American Travel Writing. She has taught writing at Yale University, the Chautauqua Institution, and Semester at Sea. A Fulbright Scholar, Kinder received her MFA at the University of Iowa and is the author of Delaying the Real World and the cofounder of the online magazine Off Assignment.
The Stone Home
by Crystal Hana Kim
A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
