-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
by Zoe Disigny
The Art of Traveling Strangers is a journey of self-discovery and personal empowerment inspired by the great art masterpieces of Italy and France. It's a tale of female bonding and the amazing powers of perception. After all, reality, like art, is just an illusion.
It's the 1980s, and art historian Claire Markham reels from a series of heartbreaking losses. Desperate to escape her shattered reality, she becomes an art guide in Europe for quirky stranger Viv Chancey and embarks on a life-changing journey through the art-filled cities of Milan, Venice, Ravenna, Florence, Siena, Rome, and Paris.
Once abroad, Claire tries to hide her woes by focusing on Viv's art education, but Viv—who is not who she seems—has a different learning experience in mind. Frustrated and wanting to reimagine her life, Claire embraces the idea of reality as illusion and finds herself slipping into the tales of art and history.
When threatened with one more crushing loss, Claire must learn from the spirit of her eccentric companion and the lessons from the art they encounter to take charge of her life or lose the most precious thing in it.
"Easily digestible and intelligent...brimming with artistic insights...[Disigny's] command of the history of European art is formidable, and readers are treated to an impressively astute tour of it...[at] a buoyantly brisk pace." —Kirkus Reviews
"The Art of Traveling Strangers will delight readers who treasure European art, culture, and travel; readers who value exploration and discovery of oneself and the world; and readers who celebrate unlikely friendships. Zoe Disigny's debut novel tells a powerful and unique story of loss, love, hurt, and forgiveness with a grand tour of Italian masterpieces thrown in for good measure." —Romalyn Tilghman, award-winning author of To the Stars through Difficulties
This information about The Art of Traveling Strangers 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.
Zoe Disigny holds a master's degree in art history and has taught at the college level throughout her career. She has led numerous art tours in Europe and established a business in Paris offering art history adventures for American tourists. www.zoedisigny.com
If you liked The Art of Traveling Strangers, try these:
by Fredrik Backman
Published 2026
#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger's life twenty-five years later.
by Victoria Redel
Published 2025
A "captivating" lesbian romance set in the "wonderfully atmospheric" art world of 1600s Amsterdam (Sarah Jessica Parker, SJP Lit).
by Miranda July
Published 2025
The New York Times bestselling author returns with an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel about a woman upending her life
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home: but unlike charity, it should end there.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
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.
