The Perfect Stranger - Hardcover

Funny, unique and powerful. A wise, sad, wonderfully written memoir that's ripe for rediscovery. -- David Nicholls A fine memorial to love and youth. -- Michael Frayn, author of Headlong and Spies I've re-read The Perfect Stranger many times and still think it, though unique, a model "of its kind". -- Derek Mahon To hear the truth so devastatingly and yet so joyfully encountered is rare in an age where autobiography has been flattened by the massed weight of political and public reminiscence. This autobiography, from its beginning to its bitter end, is a celebration of joy: joy in youth, in woman, in male camaraderie, in the struggle of art, in married love. -- The Times Literary Supplement

The Perfect Stranger was first published in the '60s and since then has continued to find a select group of passionate admirers. Evocative and engaging, and ultimately deeply emotional, The Perfect Stranger is the story of a soldier, a poet and a husband. The author describes it as the story of a rescue -of a young man who emerges from the bleak playing fields of school onto the battlefields of Korea, from the heady chaos of Barcelona into an intense and tragic relationship with a girl called Sally Lehmann. Brutally sad, sharp and wise, this is a classic of the genre.