Living with Strangers: Healing a Wounded Heart in a Distant Land

by Robin Rosenbluth

A debut memoirist’s hopeful and brave coming-of-age story of surviving a turbulent youth—neglected first by her father, then as a teen in foster care—and going on to find a sense of belonging and a new lease on life in a semi-nomadic Kenyan community.

Eager to leave her life as a foster child behind, Robin Rosenbluth travels to a remote village in northern Kenya called Songa in 1973. As a white college student, she arrives in a desert-like environment to teach elementary school to Samburu and Rendille children. While befriending the residents, she learns to live in a mud hut, survive without modern conveniences, skin a cow, and kill a chicken for dinner.

Robin weaves stories about the challenges she faced growing up—her mother’s early death, her father’s abandonment, and her years in foster care—with her account of her time in Songa. As the only Jewish resident in a village influenced by Christian missionaries, she strives to fit adapting to the intense heat, endless insects, and close encounters with wild animals. Over time, she develops close friendships with a local teacher and a woman who becomes her surrogate mother, participates in local customs, and makes a place for herself in Songa.

Offering vivid insight into why a love-starved nineteen-year-old from New York City would choose to relocate to the other side of the world, Living with Strangers is a poignant chronicle of one young woman’s search for a place to belong.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

310 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication October 27, 2026

Reviews

[Liralen]

4 stars; review to come October 2026

[Georgine Hodgkinson]

Living with Strangers both twisted up and filled up my heart. This dual-timeline story is a beautiful exploration of family and belonging. Rosenbluth's early years trapped in the foster care system earn the outrage you'll feel—at the tragic death of her mother, at her uncaring father, and at the way foster children are mistreated. These stories are woven together with her adventures in Kenya as a student in the 1970s at Friends World College, where she is assigned as an English teacher in the remote village of Songa and learns powerful lessons about community, family, and belonging.

I enjoyed both narrative timelines immensely. Stories from Rosenbluth's youth are critical in establishing her motivation to work so diligently in Kenya: to learn Swahili, live without modern conveniences, build a hut from cow and elephant dung, and even butcher animals for food. Her stories are unique, but the connections she makes and the insights she gleans are universal. As she reflects near the end of the book, she comes to believe that she can build lasting relationships with people who won't abandon her, and that she'll have the courage to leave behind those who mistreat her.

I was lucky enough to receive an advance reader copy of this book and sincerely loved it. I highly recommend Living with Strangers. It's a quick read that will carry you away to another time and place — and remind you that the human spirit is a powerful force.

[Deborah Samuel]

I had the privilege of reading an advance copy of Robin Rosenbluth’s Living with Strangers: Healing a Wounded Heart in a Distant Land, and I found her story both moving and inspiring.

What stayed with me most were the many lessons within the lessons woven throughout Robin’s journey. Her experiences of loss, abandonment, foster care, and ultimately traveling halfway around the world in search of something she may not yet have been able to name make this far more than a coming-of-age story. It is a story about belonging, resilience, and the unexpected places where healing can begin.

Robin writes with honesty about what it means to grow up without the security and unconditional love every child deserves. Yet she does not allow those early chapters to define the rest of her life. Her time in Kenya becomes a fascinating backdrop for discovering connection, community, courage, and a deeper understanding of herself.

I especially believe this memoir will resonate with anyone who has experienced the foster care system, abandonment, or the feeling of being an outsider and has worked to find their place on the other side of that journey.

Robin’s story reminds us that sometimes we have to travel very far—geographically and emotionally—to finally discover where we belong.

An inspiring and heartfelt memoir that I thoroughly enjoyed and am grateful to have read early. Thanks Robin for sharing with me.

Deborah Samuel

[Robin Merle]

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of Living with Strangers and loved it. In her memoir, Robin Rosenbluth creates the world of Songa, Kenya with such vivid texture that you can feel the red dust of the earth on your skin. The warmth of the friends and families she meets radiates from the page, offering a lifeline to a woman who was abandoned by her father and sent to live in foster homes. Robin is clear-eyed about the confusion and sadness of a child left with foster parents rather than allowed to grow up in the affectionate embrace of her own family. With brothers, aunts, and uncles so close, it is painful to see them kept out of reach by an unrelenting, distrustful father who calls only to belittle her. Her salvation is her strength and determination to find a community that will accept and love her. She finds this in Songa, Kenya, in a culture and with people entirely different from anything she has known. They give her exactly what she was seeking: parental love, acceptance, and friendship, expressed through both actions and words. This is a memoir that shows, unforgettably, how one year can change an entire life — and how the courage to seek the emotional sustenance you need is rewarded.

[Jill Dobbe]

Living With Strangers is an honest and emotional account of Rosenbluth's life. She writes about her early years, when she loses her mother to cancer. Her father remarries women who tend to be cruel and uncaring toward his children. Eventually, her father chooses the women in his life over his children and places her in foster care. The author continually tries to repair her relationship with her father, leaving her wanting his love throughout her life.

Despite Rosenbluth's difficult upbringing, she attends college and courageously moves to Kenya, where she experiences a new culture, teaches elementary students, and befriends local people. Throughout the book, the author expertly weaves stories of her youth alongside her experiences in Africa. While living a life full of adventure and new experiences across the world, Rosenbluth ultimately finds the belonging and acceptance she has been searching for.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC.

[Julia Garling]

I had the good fortune of getting an advance reader copy of Robin Rosenbluth’s debut book, "Living with Strangers." I was captivated by her beautiful prose and her seamless ability to weave together the past and the present. Her vulnerability in recalling painful memories and her raw honesty regarding her fears of the unknown were both refreshing and deeply gripping.

The search for home and a sense of belonging is a universal journey, and her longing touches all of us in a profound way. I found myself rooting for her and championing her as she faced her fears, learned to stand up for her beliefs, and discovered her own self-worth—ultimately teaching others how to believe in themselves.

This is a beautifully written, poignant first book that will undoubtedly touch your heart. It transports you to another world while simultaneously helping you find a sense of belonging in your own world. Brava, Robin!

[Susan Ritz]

Robin Rosenbluth is intrepid, resilient, brave and a damn good writer. Her story of growing up in foster care and as a young woman finding home among nomadic tribes in Kenya is a tale you will not forget. Reading this memoir gave me insight into two worlds I knew little about. This book showed me how adversity met with courage creates a rich foundation for a satisfying and fascinating life and for a book that will stick with me.

[Kelly]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a captivating book that weaves 2 stories together to make an interesting read. I was most interested in this book because of the subject of foster homes but I ended up getting more out of the Kenya story.