Writing style
Conversational · Descriptive · Lyrical
Apple BooksBefore we were strangers
Romance
- Print length
- 310 pagesAtria Paperback, 2015
Description
Fifteen years after losing contact with his college love, Matt catches a fleeting glimpse of Grace from a New York subway train. Unable to reach her, he places a missed-connections advertisement and reopens a relationship neither has fully put behind them. Their reunion leads back to their student years at New York University, when Matt was discovering photography, Grace was devoted to music, and friendship gradually became an intense romance. Alternating between youth and adulthood, the novel reveals how separation, failed communication, and choices made under pressure turned intimacy into silence. The renewed connection forces both characters to compare the people they once expected to become with the lives they have actually built.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Moderate
Tone
Intimate · Reflective · Romantic · Wistful
Structure
Dual timeline · Nonlinear
Focus
Character · Relationships
Emotional intensity
4 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 2 / 5
- Ideas
- 2 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Atria Paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781501105777, 9781501105784
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