To Love a Stranger

by Kris Faatz

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Pub Date May 23 2017 | Archive Date Jul 29 2017

Blue Moon Publishers | Blue Moon Voices

Literary Fiction | Women's Fiction

Description

Sam and Jeannette have two things in common: a passion for music and a need to escape from themselves. In the fall of 1986, when President Reagan is in his second term, Elton John plays on the radio, and Spike Lee is conquering the box office, Sam and Jeannette meet in Virginia. Both of them have landed their first jobs with the Richmond Symphonic Artists, a small orchestra that’s fighting to survive.

Jeannette, fragile and shadowed by demons from her past, quickly falls in love with the charismatic and brilliant Sam. She thinks he will bring her stability and redemption. But she doesn't know that he has secrets of his own: especially that the mystery disease AIDS, the so-called "gay plague" that fills the news and terrifies the American public, could possibly touch his life.

As Sam and Jeannette struggle to save their orchestra, they look for deliverance in each other. But their past secrets - especially Sam's - threaten to destroy the future they're trying to build.

A beautiful debut novel filled with human emotion and an undeniable passion for music, To Love A Stranger explores a story of love and personal redemption that is impossible to forget.

A Note From the Publisher

Kris Faatz (rhymes with skates) is a pianist, writer, and teacher. Before finding its home with Blue Moon Publishers, her debut novel To Love a Stranger was a finalist for the 2016 Schaffner Press Music in Literature Award. Kris’s short fiction has appeared in a number of journals, including Kenyon Review, Potomac Review, Reed, and Glassworks.

Kris holds Bachelor’s degrees in music and engineering from Swarthmore College and a Master of Music from the Peabody Conservatory. She has also been a contributor at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshops and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.

When not at work, Kris can often be found cooking or baking one-handedly so she can also hold up a book to read. Favourite writers include Barbara Kingsolver, Terry Pratchett, Jane Austen, Richard Adams, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Steinbeck. Kris also loves hiking and exploring the outdoors. She lives in Maryland with her husband Paul and cats Alafair and Templeton, who, like cats everywhere, know who’s really in charge.

Kris Faatz (rhymes with skates) is a pianist, writer, and teacher. Before finding its home with Blue Moon Publishers, her debut novel To Love a Stranger was a finalist for the 2016 Schaffner Press...

Advance Praise

“Sam Kraychek is the Maestro, in total command of the small city orchestra he conducts. But the rest of Sam’s life refuses to give in to his control, and throughout this gentle, moving book, Sam struggles to get along with his father; he struggles with his religion; he struggles to come to grips with the impending death of his gay lover; and he struggles to keep secret the deepest parts of himself, especially from his soon-to-be-pregnant new wife. More than anything, Sam struggles to accept himself. To Love A Stranger is a novel filled with decent, loving people all seeking acceptance, of and from others, and from themselves most of all.”
- Mark Farrington, author of Manion in Darkness

“To Love A Stranger by Kris Faatz is a novel full of all kinds of love—big, messy, secret. It is a novel full of music and juicy orchestra drama rivalling Mozart In The Jungle. It is a novel full of both sweetness and sadness. Readers are safe in this author’s thoughtful hands, amidst these gorgeous words, in this world rich with the heady sounds of darkness, honesty, forgiveness. To Love A Stranger is written with the harmony of humanity in mind. To Love A Stranger is a song.”
- Leesa Cross-Smith, author of Every Kiss A War

“How well do we know the people we love? This question is at the heart of Kris Faatz'sbeautifully written first novel. With Sam and Jeannette, Faatz has created two sympathetic, deeply flawed characters, driven by loneliness and a desire to belong. Set in the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, their story unfolds with tragic inevitability. Compassionate and emotionally engaging, To Love A Stranger is a page-turner, a story that will resonate with the reader for a long time to come.”
- Geeta Kothari, author of I Brake For Moose and Other Stories

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