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A Stranger Comes to Town
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of Disturbances in the Field and Leaving Brooklyn, returns with a psychological novel about memory, identity, and the ways we create ourselves.
After being found on a sidewalk, knocked down by a bicycle on Columbus Avenue one block from New York’s Central Park, Joe Marzino remembers nothing, not even his own name. He awakens into the world with only the clothes on his back, a throbbing pain in his left ankle, and more questions than answers.
Joe’s search to discover his true identity exposes how even the most ordinary aspects of our lives are often extraordinarily felt. A Stranger Comes to Town is a masterful novel of self-discovery, revealing the multitude of histories and lives we each inhabit, as well as the many ways we seek to reinvent ourselves and reshape our pasts.
A Stranger Comes to Town is crafted with immense imagination and a skillfulness that reaffirms Lynne Sharon Schwartz, celebrated author of thirty books including novels, short fiction, poetry, criticism, and works of translation, as one of the most assured writers of our time.
Past Praise for Lynne Sharon Schwartz
“This excellent writer has the gift of making even the slightest of domestic situations feel richly alive to the pleasures we allow and the punishments we inflict on ourselves and one another.”
—Vivian Gornick, author of Fierce Attachments: A Memoir
“Lynne Sharon Schwartz is a dazzling writer.”
—Hilma Wolitzer, author of Today, a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket
"Schwartz is an elegant writer with a nimble intellect..."
—The Seattle Times
"Lynne Sharon Schwartz reaches into her heart, examines its intricacies, tinkers with little broken bits, and shows us what she's learned — daring us to try this risky procedure at home."
—Los Angeles Review of Books
“[Schwartz’s] insights are at once sympathetic and drenched with irony.”
—The New York Times
“…an American literary treasure.”
—Publishers Weekly
"[R]eading Schwartz is like a pleasurable visit with a thoughtful and articulate friend."
—Kirkus
There's an incredible intimacy to Schwartz's prose, that precious feeling of connectedness you experience only with the very closest of friends.
—Booklist
After being found on a sidewalk, knocked down by a bicycle on Columbus Avenue one block from New York’s Central Park, Joe Marzino remembers nothing, not even his own name. He awakens into the world with only the clothes on his back, a throbbing pain in his left ankle, and more questions than answers.
Joe’s search to discover his true identity exposes how even the most ordinary aspects of our lives are often extraordinarily felt. A Stranger Comes to Town is a masterful novel of self-discovery, revealing the multitude of histories and lives we each inhabit, as well as the many ways we seek to reinvent ourselves and reshape our pasts.
A Stranger Comes to Town is crafted with immense imagination and a skillfulness that reaffirms Lynne Sharon Schwartz, celebrated author of thirty books including novels, short fiction, poetry, criticism, and works of translation, as one of the most assured writers of our time.
Past Praise for Lynne Sharon Schwartz
“This excellent writer has the gift of making even the slightest of domestic situations feel richly alive to the pleasures we allow and the punishments we inflict on ourselves and one another.”
—Vivian Gornick, author of Fierce Attachments: A Memoir
“Lynne Sharon Schwartz is a dazzling writer.”
—Hilma Wolitzer, author of Today, a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket
"Schwartz is an elegant writer with a nimble intellect..."
—The Seattle Times
"Lynne Sharon Schwartz reaches into her heart, examines its intricacies, tinkers with little broken bits, and shows us what she's learned — daring us to try this risky procedure at home."
—Los Angeles Review of Books
“[Schwartz’s] insights are at once sympathetic and drenched with irony.”
—The New York Times
“…an American literary treasure.”
—Publishers Weekly
"[R]eading Schwartz is like a pleasurable visit with a thoughtful and articulate friend."
—Kirkus
There's an incredible intimacy to Schwartz's prose, that precious feeling of connectedness you experience only with the very closest of friends.
—Booklist
205 pages, Paperback
Published October 28, 2025
2959 people want to read
About the author
Lynne Sharon Schwartz
51 books53 followersLynne Sharon Schwartz (b. 1939) is a celebrated author of novels, poems, short fiction, and criticism. Schwartz began her career with a series of short stories before publishing her first novel, the National Book Award–nominated Rough Strife (1980). She went on to publish works of memoir, poetry, and translation. Her other novels have included the award-nominated Leaving Brooklyn (1989) and Disturbances in the Field (1983). Her short fiction has appeared in theBest American Short Stories annual anthology series several times. In addition, her reviews and criticism have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers. Schwartz lives in New York City, and is currently a faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 20, 2025
Joe Marzino, the name in his wallet, wakes up in the hospital after an accident, so he’s told, a stranger to himself. He can’t remember a single thing about himself. A beautiful woman called Norah says she is his wife. They have three children: 16yo Vincent, 9yo Kevin and 4½yo Luz.
Norah tells him that he is an actor, playing a private eye. As she brings him up to speed on his past, he learns good and bad things about himself. Gradually he comes to know of several things that he has done in the past. Things that are shady and wrong, things he cannot imagine himself doing in the past.
And the evidence seems to be mounting. A rumour about a classmate who has the leading role in a college play that Joe wanted himself. Letting his sister take the blame for his own wrongdoing. Forcing himself on a teenager. Joe cannot reconcile the best of who he believes he is with the worst of what others have told him about himself.
Are they true, these horrible things he is told he did in the past? Joe likes to think that he is a reasonably good guy. Could he have done the bad things—and they are really bad—that he is supposed to have done? Will he ever get to the truth about himself?
The book is written in the first-person PoV of Joe.
WHAT I LIKED: The book is packed with information about amnesia, including films on the subject which Joe remembers. It forces us to mull over our sense of self, and the mystery of who we might be, if the past were obliterated for us.
Interestingly, Joe is not a completely clean slate. He can identify places and accents, just not himself.
It was interesting to see him second-guess himself, every line a new thought as he attempted to suss out his memories. The constant thinking, not quite stream of consciousness, but steady, slowly frames his sense of self.
There is an element of mystery as he attempts to figure out who he is, and how he can be the husband and father he is, as also play the other roles he must play.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: Joe has an opportunity to re-invent himself, to redeem himself, but he doesn’t take it. This was an example of a character naturally assuming for himself a negative arc. Or more correctly, falling back to the same rhythms his life once held.
ALL SAID AND DONE: I couldn’t figure out the point of the book towards the end. Joe gets some memories back, but the core of who he is does not change. He slips back into the same behaviour patterns.
The book ended on a vague, inconclusive note. I couldn’t decide what to make of it.
(I received a copy of this book for the purpose of writing a review. Thanks to the author and publisher. I read it on NetGalley.)
Norah tells him that he is an actor, playing a private eye. As she brings him up to speed on his past, he learns good and bad things about himself. Gradually he comes to know of several things that he has done in the past. Things that are shady and wrong, things he cannot imagine himself doing in the past.
And the evidence seems to be mounting. A rumour about a classmate who has the leading role in a college play that Joe wanted himself. Letting his sister take the blame for his own wrongdoing. Forcing himself on a teenager. Joe cannot reconcile the best of who he believes he is with the worst of what others have told him about himself.
Are they true, these horrible things he is told he did in the past? Joe likes to think that he is a reasonably good guy. Could he have done the bad things—and they are really bad—that he is supposed to have done? Will he ever get to the truth about himself?
The book is written in the first-person PoV of Joe.
WHAT I LIKED: The book is packed with information about amnesia, including films on the subject which Joe remembers. It forces us to mull over our sense of self, and the mystery of who we might be, if the past were obliterated for us.
Interestingly, Joe is not a completely clean slate. He can identify places and accents, just not himself.
It was interesting to see him second-guess himself, every line a new thought as he attempted to suss out his memories. The constant thinking, not quite stream of consciousness, but steady, slowly frames his sense of self.
There is an element of mystery as he attempts to figure out who he is, and how he can be the husband and father he is, as also play the other roles he must play.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: Joe has an opportunity to re-invent himself, to redeem himself, but he doesn’t take it. This was an example of a character naturally assuming for himself a negative arc. Or more correctly, falling back to the same rhythms his life once held.
ALL SAID AND DONE: I couldn’t figure out the point of the book towards the end. Joe gets some memories back, but the core of who he is does not change. He slips back into the same behaviour patterns.
The book ended on a vague, inconclusive note. I couldn’t decide what to make of it.
(I received a copy of this book for the purpose of writing a review. Thanks to the author and publisher. I read it on NetGalley.)
August 10, 2025
A Stranger Comes to Town is a quietly profound meditation on memory, identity, and the fragile scaffolding of self.
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, known for her psychologically rich narratives, returns with a novel that is as introspective as it is unsettling. When Joe Marzino is knocked down by a bicycle on Columbus Avenue and wakes with no memory—not even of his own name—he becomes a blank slate in a city teeming with stories. What follows is not just a search for identity, but a philosophical excavation of what it means to exist without context.
Schwartz’s prose is elegant and unhurried, allowing the reader to sit with Joe’s confusion, his tentative steps toward selfhood, and the haunting realization that our lives are often stitched together by fragile threads of memory and perception. The novel doesn’t rely on dramatic twists; instead, it offers a quiet intensity, revealing how even the most ordinary details—a pair of shoes, a street corner, a stranger’s kindness—can carry extraordinary emotional weight.
This is a book for readers who appreciate literary fiction that asks big questions in subtle ways. Schwartz’s skill lies in her ability to make the abstract feel intimate, and Joe’s journey is both deeply personal and universally resonant.
A beautifully crafted exploration of how we become who we are—and what happens when that story is erased.
With thanks to Lynne Sharon Schwartz, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, known for her psychologically rich narratives, returns with a novel that is as introspective as it is unsettling. When Joe Marzino is knocked down by a bicycle on Columbus Avenue and wakes with no memory—not even of his own name—he becomes a blank slate in a city teeming with stories. What follows is not just a search for identity, but a philosophical excavation of what it means to exist without context.
Schwartz’s prose is elegant and unhurried, allowing the reader to sit with Joe’s confusion, his tentative steps toward selfhood, and the haunting realization that our lives are often stitched together by fragile threads of memory and perception. The novel doesn’t rely on dramatic twists; instead, it offers a quiet intensity, revealing how even the most ordinary details—a pair of shoes, a street corner, a stranger’s kindness—can carry extraordinary emotional weight.
This is a book for readers who appreciate literary fiction that asks big questions in subtle ways. Schwartz’s skill lies in her ability to make the abstract feel intimate, and Joe’s journey is both deeply personal and universally resonant.
A beautifully crafted exploration of how we become who we are—and what happens when that story is erased.
With thanks to Lynne Sharon Schwartz, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.
December 15, 2025
Though this seems a story of amnesia that has been told many times before, Schwartz adapts her stance to address the question of when this most clears and the memory begins to return, what if the person affected really doesn’t like what emerges.
After a crash with a pizza delivery driver on his morning run in Central Park, Joe Marzano in his hospital bed, is diagnosed with retrograde amnesia.
After discharge from hospital his domestic life begins once more, what appears to be a happy family with three children in a pleasant brownstone house. But this vision of domesticity isn’t as perfect as it seems.
He soon finds out his profession was as an actor in a TV cop drama, in which he plays the lead private detective. On the surface, a wonderful career, but as the days pass this too may not be as glamorous as it seems.
Schwartz is able to pose some interesting questions, indeed this had the makings of a really good novel. My problem was that Joe, his wife and any other key characters were so unpleasant it was difficult to care about them.
After a crash with a pizza delivery driver on his morning run in Central Park, Joe Marzano in his hospital bed, is diagnosed with retrograde amnesia.
After discharge from hospital his domestic life begins once more, what appears to be a happy family with three children in a pleasant brownstone house. But this vision of domesticity isn’t as perfect as it seems.
He soon finds out his profession was as an actor in a TV cop drama, in which he plays the lead private detective. On the surface, a wonderful career, but as the days pass this too may not be as glamorous as it seems.
Schwartz is able to pose some interesting questions, indeed this had the makings of a really good novel. My problem was that Joe, his wife and any other key characters were so unpleasant it was difficult to care about them.
October 28, 2025
I won a free copy of this in a Goodreads giveaway. Here is my honest review.
A typical amnesia story told with delicate, detailed prose. The writing was the best part of this book.
You get to learn who the main character is alongside him. You can't help but share in his confusion and paranoia. This is a story for people into literary or contemporary fiction of the everyday or the mundane; it's not some big drama with grand hidden secrets regarding his memory loss (not that he didn't have any dirty 'laundry' - most of us do); this is just a tale about a man and his typical, normal family. I sped through it and felt almost comforted reading it.
I'll definitely have to check out something else by this author. It seems I really like her writing style.
A typical amnesia story told with delicate, detailed prose. The writing was the best part of this book.
You get to learn who the main character is alongside him. You can't help but share in his confusion and paranoia. This is a story for people into literary or contemporary fiction of the everyday or the mundane; it's not some big drama with grand hidden secrets regarding his memory loss (not that he didn't have any dirty 'laundry' - most of us do); this is just a tale about a man and his typical, normal family. I sped through it and felt almost comforted reading it.
I'll definitely have to check out something else by this author. It seems I really like her writing style.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews