Dear Strangers

"Mullins (The Rug Merchant) creates a thematically heavy but emotionally vacant web of connections in her second novel. For siblings Oliver and Mary, a series of tragedies defines their childhood. On the same day that a neighborhood girl dies, their pathologist father also dies suddenly, leaving their mother to abandon the adoption of what would be the family's third child. Twenty-one years later, Mary, a flight attendant, maintains a safe cruising altitude above the pain and loss that, to her, characterize life. Oliver, obsessed with finding his lost brother, helps grieving families memorialize loved ones by creating video tributes to their lives. Oliver's encounter with Miranda, a beautiful young photographer-artist, is the first of a series of interactions among strangers who might become something more. Mullins's novel is an extended exploration of similar connections made and missed, but the author is more focused on driving home her ideas than developing her characters, who come across as thematic functionaries. The emotional vacuum left in the wake of Mullins's dedication to her ideas makes this a difficult book to get into." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

A luminous, moving portrait of grief and atonement, romance and longing, "Dear Strangers" unearths the possibilities of hope and renewal in the unexpected bonds forged with family and strangers alike.

Meg Mullins holds an MFA from Columbia University. The short story that became the first chapter of her debut novel, The Rug Merchant, was selected by Sue Miller for The Best American Short Stories 2002.