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.

自从科琳·金德（Colleen Kinder）向作者发出“给你难忘的陌生人写封信”的呼吁，就像打开了水闸，各种回信开始涌入。这些回信亲切又迷人，都是以第二人称写的，由当今优秀文学家撰写，文章短小精辟，围绕着感恩、奇迹、告别等主题展开，引导我们穿越全球，探寻人类联系的奥秘。畅销书作家莱斯利·贾米森（Leslie Jamison）在前言中透露，在尼加拉瓜遇到的一个旅行魔术师多年来让她印象很深刻；记者泰德·康诺瓦（Ted Conover）写给他在卢旺达执行《纽约客》任务时遇到的一个陌生人；凡妮莎·华（Vanessa Hua）在中国买鞋的故事；米歇尔·迪（Michelle Tea）在德克萨斯州纹身店的遭遇。从这些信件我们可以看到对生活和追求的观察，一个陌生人的目光、微笑、提出的问题都有可能改变我们的生活轨迹。《写给陌生人的信》感人至深，令人难忘，是任何文学旅行者都无法抗拒的读物，如果你也有让你难忘的陌生人，也非常适合你阅读。