Discover the unexpected pleasures and exciting possibilities of speaking with people you don’t know-how these beautiful interruptions can transform you, and the world we share.

When Strangers Meet argues for the pleasures and transformative possibilities of talking to people you don’t know. Our lives are significantly insular. We are in a rush, our heads are down, minds somewhere else, we hear just the voices we currently recognize and hardly ever take your time and effort to experience something or someone new. Talking about When Strangers Meet up with to strangers pulls you into encounters of shared mankind and creates real emotional cable connections. It opens your globe. Passing interactions concrete your relationship to the places your home is and work and play, they’re gorgeous interruptions in the continuous routines of our lives. In luminous prose, Stark displays how talking to strangers wakes you up.

Threaded throughout are powerful vignettes from Stark’s personal lifelong practice of talking to strangers and documenting brief encounters, plus a deep exploration of the dynamics of where, how, and just why strangers get together. Eventually, When Strangers Meet explores the wealthy emotional and political meanings that are conjured up in even the briefest conversations and unexpected connections with strangers. Stark makes visible the concealed processes by which we determine who to greet and trust in passing, and the unwritten rules by which these encounters operate. When Strangers Meet up with teaches readers how to start talking to strangers and contains adventurous challenges for those who dare.