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Somehow, I've not yet mentioned this on Bluesky. But my latest book, "Hello, Stranger" (Granta 2022) is about how most of the 8 billion people on this planet are strangers. So dealing with strangers is one of the central problems of human life. blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...

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Agh! Clicked "send" before adding alt text on the image. Sorry, folks. Here's a description: Orange book cover, reading "Hello, Stranger: Stories of Connection in a Divided World" Text in white. Image of blue door beneath, opening out into a sunny sky.

The book plays out in the space between two ideas. First, that grief is a loss of the future. And second, that strangers bring us futures we could not anticipate. I navigate between these two ideas by means of philosophy, history, anthropology and storytelling.

Quite a lot has been written about how we just need to get better at talking to strangers. But this seems inadequate. There are 8 billion strangers out there —  that's a hell of a lot of talking. I'm also interested in other ways of thinking about living well alongside people we don't know.

Anyway, have a read if you like... Buy a copy for yourself and one to leave on the bus for a stranger to find. I've linked to Blackwells as they deliver globally with free shipping from the UK.