LETTER TO A STRANGER

Dozens of writers with something more to say to a person they never knew.

As Leslie Jamison points out in the foreword, "we spend so much of our lives in the company of people we'll never know….How rarely we admit the strange, unannounced ways they lodge inside of us." Jamison was one of the first contributors to a column called "Letter to a Stranger," edited by Kinder for the online magazine she co-founded, Off Assignment. In this anthology, she collects the “most extraordinary” submissions. Many are quite brief, and none are very long, and the thematic sections allow them to bounce off each other in interesting ways. The first section, "Symmetry," includes both Lia Purpura and Michelle Tea reflecting on young strangers they felt a kinship with, one on a plane, the other in a tattoo parlor. In the “Chemistry” section, we read about various sorts of attractions that never came to fruition. Howard Axelrod: "I was twelve; this was nearly thirty years ago, I've never written about you, never spoken about you, not in the weeks afterward to the boys in my cabin, not in the years afterward.” Readers will eagerly await the confidence Axelrod shares next. "Gratitude" includes characters ranging from the disappearing superhero doctor who saved Aria Beth Sloss' baby to "the Drunk Mr. Flunchy," a man "lanky as a Giacometti and more shabby than chic," whose gift to Gregory Pardlo was a physical threat. While many of the essays have an ephemeral quality, some will stick with even the most jaded of reader—e.g., Sophie Haigney's apology to the survivor of a horrible crime whom she tormented with questions in her role as "the media." Other contributors include Pico Iyer, Maggie Shipstead, Elizabeth Kolberg, Jacquelyn Mitchard, and Lucas Mann, with letters originating from all seven continents.

Good stories from writers both popular and unknown, guaranteed to fill you with wanderlust.