Almost Strangers: A Novel

(Paperback)

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From a talented short story writer- a penetrating first novel about the lives of two very different women exploring the natures of fate and morality, love and survival. When her mother dies, forty-two-year-old Ursula Gant is left shattered. Cocooning herself in grief, Ursula retreats behind a literal wall of beloved books. But not even the fictional barricade can safeguard her from a spell of hallucinations. When the wall collapses, Ursula bolts to the airport, abandoning her lover Daniel. Meanwhile, Daniel's wife Cissy, a fading beauty queen, is tormented by a different sort of loss. Devastated by her husband's betrayal, Cissy boards a plane to Athens- the same plane Ursala is on. The plane crashes. In the aftermath, one of Daniel's two fleeing women disappears- her body is never recovered. The other, horribly burned, regains consciousness. But without any memory, and with an unrecogisable face, she ventures into the world alone, unloved and unknowable.

Reviews

Publishers Weekly An intelligent woman's book, and as such, [it] exhibits...strong writing and provocative ideas.

Author Bio

Delsa Winer has written short stories for several well-renowned American publications. The recipient of a fellowship from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, she has been short-listed for several literary prizes including the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Awards.