You Are Not a Stranger Here

These stories look at despair and mental illness from two sides: those who live with it and those who try to help. An old inventor in the grip of manic energy tries to make peace with the gay son he has long been estranged from. A teenager who has just lost both parents, and is learning to accept being gay, seeks contact wherever he can, even in the violence of a brutish classmate. A young doctor sets out to find the cause of a patient's illness and runs into his own fears. A lovesick teenage volunteer befriends a gracious middle-aged woman who has lived for years in a psychiatric hospital, and a despondent husband who believes he only weighs on his wife finds new life after meeting an old woman whose son is dying.

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About the book

Form

Short stories

First published

2002 by Nan A. Talese

Author's age

32 when first published

ISBN

9780385501675 (Nan A. Talese, United States)

9780385720724 (Anchor Books, United States)

9780099443643 (Vintage, United Kingdom)