We have two kinds of relationships with strangers. In one, we don’t talk to them, don’t trust them, don’t invite them in if they knock, don’t make eye contact, and don’t take online relationships into real life unless it’s in a public place first. This is the relationship in which strangers are dangerous and mysterious, alien and foreign, unknown outsiders. They’re very intriguing, but it’s best to keep our distance.
In a parallel relationship, we are actually obsessed with strangers. We love to scroll through their lives, for hours, from the safety of our phones. We relate to them. We follow them. They make us laugh and cry. We watch them dancing, singing, ranting, protesting, teaching, arguing, creating, cooking, searching for connection. Being human. Just like us.
That’s why those moments when fate has throws us into the same place at the same time to cross paths with a stranger are so exciting. Anything can happen. A stranger might shock us, threaten us, save us, disturb us, or make us think. They might even be the love of our lives. We have a strong desire to know the stranger’s story, who they are and what made them that way, because ultimately, strangers give us answers about ourselves.
These five novels involve strangers crossing paths in unexpected ways. They are about what happens when people who don’t know each other are suddenly entangled in one another’s lives. But they are also about the chance experiences that connect us to each other and change us, sometimes for a moment. Sometimes forever.
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Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin
Bohemian, colorful, exuberant, and one of the first books to normalize queer lives in mainstream culture, this modern literary classic is still as relevant today as it was in 1976 when it was published. Set in 1970s San Francisco, Maupin brings us into the magical, groovy, and energetic world of 28 Babary Lane and its young tenants. Though they are all strangers at the start, Mary Ann Singleton, Mouse, Mona Ramsey and Brian very soon become like family as they strive to find the paths their loves and lives are meant to take. It all happens under the guidance of the mystical, cannabis-loving, kaftan wearing, wise and delightful Mrs Madrigal.
It is a story about strangers who meet by chance but become each other’s “logical family” by choice.
How Not To Drown in a Glass of Water, Angie Cruz
This extraordinary character study is told as twelve monologues by Cara Romero, a middle-aged Dominican woman who lost her factory job in the 2009 recession. She attends a series of government funded job counselling appointments for older workers where she recounts the extraordinary – and ordinary – events of her life.
Cara would not be telling us these deeply felt, poignant and funny stories were it not for the faceless, nameless career counsellor who sits with her at every session. Cara spills the intimate, tragic, comic, heart rending details of her life because of the truth that often it is easier to tell our secrets to a stranger. Without the anonymous counsellor paid to listen, we wouldn’t get to hear Cara tell her moving, masterful story. A real treat on audio as well.
Leave the World Behind, Rumaan Alam
Amanda and Clay take their children to a rented, isolated, luxury home on Long Island. But just as they settle into their week of living the dream on vacation, the owners of the home, Ruth and G.H., knock on the door, seeking shelter after a massive power outage hits New York City. With no internet, no power, no phones, and no one else nearby, and now way to check the truth, it’s impossible to know whether these strangers can be trusted. Or if any of them are safe.
In this tense exploration of how race, class and identity govern our instincts, Alam confronts us with uncomfortable realizations about how we judge strangers, and what a crisis can do to our humanity.
Looker, Laura Sims
The Professor, with only her ex-partner’s cat for company, sits in her decaying apartment and grieves the loss of her relationship and her struggle with infertility. She’s barely holding onto her job. As her life collapses, she finds solace in watching the oblivious, beautiful, successful Actress, her neighbour, whom she doesn’t know, but whose life looks perfect through the window to her apartment. It’s also the exact opposite of the lonely, unravelling Professor’s. The Professor’s obsession with The Actress and her family spirals downward in dark and disturbing ways.
This tense, psychologically driven book is a portrait of typical city life, that strangeness of living intimately with strangers, who we never really know. Until we do.
Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith
The master of stories about chance encounters between strangers was undoubtedly Patricia Highsmith. Her unnerving 1950 classic, which became a Hitchcock film, is about two strangers who meet on a train and decide to exchange murders. Bruno will kill Guy’s wife, if Guy will kill Bruno’s father. It’s the perfect crime, because neither man will have a connection to the other, so the police won’t suspect them.
This dark psychological thriller about guilt, obsession, truth and morality arises out of just a single conversation between strangers who happen to sit next to one another. It will make you think, and look at your next subway ride a little differently.
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Five by Ilona Bannister is available from Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
