A Perfect Stranger: And Other Stories

In Roxana Robinson€s lucid and elegant prose, her characters€ inner worlds open up to us, revealing private emotional cores that are familiar in their needs, their secrets, and their longings. These people tell us the truth€“not only about themselves, their relationships, and their lives, but about ourselves as well.

In €œFamily Christmas,€ a young girl takes a holiday trip to her grandparents€, where the formal atmosphere is shattered by a mysterious and chaotic event that she knows she€s too young to understand but struggles to comprehend.

In €œBlind Man,€ a college professor copes with the onslaught of grief after his daughter€s death. In €œThe Face Lift,€ two college friends renew their bond across a great cultural divide. The sad and hilarious €œAssistance€ flawlessly details the tragicomic aspects of ageing€“seen through the eyes of a daughter-turned-caretaker. The terrors of illness are explored in €œThe Treatment,€ and in €œAssez,€ a trip to Provence reveals the true volatility of love€“and reminds us that we often don€t realize that what we have is enough until it€s gone.

A Perfect Stranger powerfully and affectingly examines the complex, intricate network of experiences that binds us to one another. These stories are tender, raw, lovely, and fine€“and they reaffirm Roxana Robinson€s place at the forefront of modern literature.