Lauren Groff, Elizabeth Kolbert, Pam Houston, Pico Iyer, T. Kira Madden, Gregory Pardlo, Maggie Shipstead, and Peter Orner are among the numerous writers who grapple with this mystery: How can an ephemeral encounter leave an eternal mark?

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.

Best-selling 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.