Strangers: Now an award-winning major film

Good book bought as I'd been to see All of us strangers A wonderful film

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend. The style of prose is very accessible and it's a true page-turner. The supernatural plot is well constructed and it does well at capturing the loneliness of modern urban living. At times towards the end I felt it was a bit overwhelmed by sentiment, but I didn't mind that too much.

Like many folk, I came to this book after seeing the film. And while the film is a little more ambiguous, it's also more focused on addressing the main character's trauma. This book on the other hand, while good and compelling, at the end turns into a supernatural horror rather than focusing on the character work it had built up the rest of the book with.There are enough differences between the book and movie that they can exist and be addressed on their own merits, but ultimately, I found the book to be far less affecting.

The book was well written and very clever, if not a wee bit sad, I take it that the ghosts of his parents were benign, but not his lover!I do not want to see the film, as it changes the book too much, with its European actors and a male lover rather than a female one.Why change the original story line ??

I found the book a fascinating read for just how similar and totally different it is to the film.Their is a darkness and cruelty in the book, the main character is attracted but also damaged by his relationships with the dead and it is difficult to glean anything very positive from it.Andrew Haigh’s film keeps to many aspects of the book but transforms the story into a marvel of compassion and warmth. But the book is well worth reading as a companion for the inspiration behind a wonderful film.

My granddaughter will be happy to receive this book.

I agree that it's very predictable, in plot and in writing. However, I also believe that it was an entertaining read, and seeing as I bought this a while ago and forgot that it was a "ghost" novel, it was actually surprisingly creepy for me to read.I wouldn't rush to buy/read it, but if you do then it won't be a complete waste of time, I've read much worse. Besides it's only short.

I was hesitant about reading the book, having recently seen the film on which it was based. However, I should have realised that being a Japanese author there would be enough cultural overtones to make it well worth the read. I loved it.

I confess I read the book because of the film, I had seen some days before. After the film the book loses much of its impact. The film is superb. Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott (specially Mescal) give us magnificent performances. Thanks to thiese performances the obvious becomes dubious. Doubt lingers tile the last scene. And remains afterwards. That’s what stimulated me to read the book. Which is good, but has a different atmosphere. The japonese have an unbeatable talent to create uncannny stories. Strangers is a good example. Nevertheless, don’t read it if you intend to see the film. Personally, I prefer the later. What doesn’t mean neglecting the book, which is also fascinating in its way.

Había visto la película, pero me gusta mucho más la novela. Es muy original. No había leído nada parecido.

This book Is one of my favorites. In the beginning is kinda of slow but It gets really good. I would recommend it to a friend

Compré este libro después de ver la película del mismo nombre o similar, para buscar explicaciones. La novela me ha parecido muy superior a su puesta en escena y me ha aclarado muchos aspectos de lo que vi en el cine. Se trata de una narración muy singular que se lee con gran interés. Muy sorprendente el final y dentro de la lógica de la propia historia, por lo que puede decirse que cumple con el grado de verosimilitud que cabe exigir a éste tipo de literatura . En mi opinión, sin llegar a ser una obra maestra, merece la pena ser leída, salvo por aquellos que estén aferrados al naturalismo.

"Strangers" is a very diiferent kind of ghost story, full of the physchological, the metaphysical and the allegorical. The book's protagonist, Harada, is a recently-divorced writer for Japanese television, and a jaded and solitary character he is, to much more of an extent than he realizes. Although he's a very believable individual character, he also is something of a metaphor for some of the more unsettling trends in the world today. Subtly bitter over his divorce and having given up on the notion of romantic love, he's also allowed himself to drift apart from his son over the years to the point where they're practically strangers to one another. A very successful and very respected writer in his field - a position many would envy - he's become cynical and skeptical over his art and his profession for little apparant reason. Approached often with overtures of friendship both from within his line of work and from without - including a beautiful young woman named Kei who also lives in the appartment building he does (used mostly nowadays as rentals for daytime office space) he seems at best unaware of the admiration his younger co-workers have for him and his achievements, and at worst dismissive of these efforts at making friends - including that from the lonely and mysterious Kei - to the point of considering them impolite intrusions. And then one day he walks into a nightclub and encounters the spitting image of his father - who died decades before, but not only looks and acts exactly the same but seems to recognize Harada and see nothing unusual about their bumping into each other this way. And through his father he also meets with his mother, who also died decades before. Is Harada so disconnected with the world that his mind is inventing this new situation to have something to be a part of? Is he already so much removed from the land of the living that it's opened up some kind of doorway through which the dead can pass? Have his parents returned of their own volition to try and help their unfortunate, dysfunctional son learn to live again? Or are these entities even his true parents at all? Mysteries and possibilities abound, and as the book progresses more and more of them seem to involve Kei. A spooky and engaging book that, for all the cynicism of its central figure, also brings the opposite set of emotions and viewpoints into excellent play, "Strangers" is a great addition to the library of any fan of horror, mystery, or even the social-commentary-through-character-study genre of literature. Great book!