The Company of Strangers

by Jen Michalski

The stories in Jen Michalski’s new collection reveal an America in which ideas of genuine community ring false and the spiritual backbone of family life is damaged, perhaps beyond repair. Characters, many of them queer Gen-Xers of a certain age, find themselves looking—often desperately—for a way to understand the lives they've lived and a way to move forward with the possibility of future happiness. In “Long Haul,” a gay man visits his estranged uncle to lay to rest the unresolved guilt they both feel over the childhood disappearance of his sister. In “Great White” a gay man who was the sperm donor to a lesbian friend’s pregnancy is confronted with the possibility of genuine parenthood when the friend’s partner dies and she is laid low by grief. And, in the title story, while visiting her brother in New Mexico, a young woman affirms her sexuality by having an affair with her brother’s girlfriend, the fallout leading her to regain her footing only when she befriends an elderly gay couple vacationing in the area. In stories that relentlessly demonstrate the tensions of the 21st century, Michalski’s The Company of Strangers provides a sometimes comical, sometimes touching portrait of what is perhaps our most pressing question: How do we make a life?

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

194 pages, Paperback

Published January 10, 2023

About the author

Jen Michalski is the author of the novels All This Can Be True (Turner/Key Light, June 2025), You'll Be FIne (NineStar Press, 2021), The Summer She Was Under Water (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), and The Tide King (Black Lawrence Press 2013), a couplet of novellas called Could You Be With Her Now (Dzanc Books 2013), and three collections of fiction (The Company of Strangers, 2023; From Here, 2014; and Close Encounters, 2007). Her work has appeared in more than 100 publications, including Poets & Writers, and she's been nominated for the Pushcart Prize seven times. In 2013, she was named as “One of 50 Women to Watch” by The Baltimore Sun and “Best Writer” by Baltimore Magazine. She is editor in chief of the literary weekly jmww.

Reviews

[Lori]

Thrilled to be partnering back up with Jen Michalski and her forthcoming story collection. It releases in January and we're seeking interviewers, reviewers, and other coverages. Reach out if you'd like a review copy!!

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live in a small town in the mountains, where my husband has been teaching for 20 years. Unfortunately we have watched as our town has changed, in ways that make us incredibly sad. People aren't friendly and helpful anymore. They don't reach out their hands to help you when you are down. We are a battle zone, and it is discouraging. I share this because recently I have felt that everyone are strangers and that there is no potential for friendship or intimacy.

Jen Michalski's latest collection, The Company of Strangers felt familiar and sad, but also empathetic and compassionate. The characters reminded me of the neighbors I still love -- people who have the power to thaw the freeze of our community. I loved that the author showed us how sometimes the people we know best are still strangers, and sometimes we experience intimacy when interacting with strangers. This is a book of stories about relationships, communication and intimacy. It also felt hopeful to me. It made me consider that maybe my community can come back together.
But
My favorite story was "The Long Haul" where a young stylist named Raymond is visiting his uncle after a long estrangement. Many years ago Raymond's sister Joelle had been kidnapped, and the unsolved crime tore the family apart. The emotion was intense and real. I cried. I was fully transported to their world, and I had a great desire to see the family reconcile.

But every story was relatable, and the characters intriguing. I loved the depictions of queer characters -- each unique, funny, real, and sometimes unlikable. They were simply depicted as humans -- not as queer humans.

Thank you to the author for sending me a copy to read -- my review reflects my honest opinion.

[EVA UJHELYI · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think the author's sheer authenticity and rawness captured me the most about this book. The way it is just splashed down in front of my face like raw intestines on a dinner table.
And the way she presented so many different ways of existing in this society made my head spin around its axis throughout the book. There are 15 short stories (if I counted right) in this slim book but some of them needed a bit of time on my part. Mostly because it made me wonder about my own past which is not necessarily a bad thing sometimes. I really enjoyed it and i highly recommend it to anyone who would like to read something different. Huge thanks to Lori for my ebook copy.

[Not Sarah Connor Writes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book by The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review!

This is such a stellar book! There's so much heart and characters you can't help but care and hope the best things for. My favourite story was "The Goodbye Party" which made me SO SAD!

Read the full review on my blog!

[Jennifer Holloway Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been some time since I have read stories that resonated in the way that the stories in this book did. There were just so many minute moments where I could just authentically feel the stories and feel the heart of the characters. I found this series of books to really be transformative and have depth that many authors cannot capture in an entire book. I definitely would be interested in reading more from this author. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

[Windy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I did not realize this book was a collection of short stories when I signed up for my free copy. Short stories are not my préfères genre.

That being said, I really enjoyed these very ordinary snippets of life. What a beautiful way to normalize life and all of its pain and challenges. I often wanted the stories to keep going.

A book to keep on your coffee table and read a story at a time and ponder.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second time reading Jen Michalski, also it's the second time this author has made me have emotions that I am not usually capable of having while reading a book. I thoroughly enjoyed her novel You'll Be Fine so when I had the opportunity to get an ARC of this short story collection I jumped at the chance. I wanted to see if Jen could bring out the same feelings in short form. The answer is absolutely she can.

Jen has a special ability to write characters with flaws and past traumas in a way that you relate and empathize with them almost immediately. The problem for me with short stories tends to be that the characters are not fully developed enough to form a bond and truly care about them. But Jen has this magical ability to write rich, nuanced characters with few words in a way that is truly special.

As always with a collection of stories some resonate with the reader more than others. The very first story, After Life, hooked me immediately and I knew that this book would really run the gamut of emotions. These stories are emotional, heartbreaking, devastating and often bleak. But they are told in a way where the reader feels almost comforted. There is an underlying hope to some of them (not all of them, some are just pure sadness) that shines through even in the darkest parts of the story.

Other favorites for me were Eat a Peach and the title story The Company of Strangers. There was one, The Goodbye Party, that damn near broke me and I had to take a minute to regain control of my emotions. It was that good. That story was like the literary equivalent to watching Beaches, you love it, but it hurts.

I would definitely recommend this book, it's written beautifully and really makes you think and feel things very deeply. It also makes you appreciate the good things you have in life, companionship, love, family, community.

My thanks to Book Sirens and Jen Michalski for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

In one of the stories in this marvelous collection, Alex, an actress, remarks that "The mind built the narrative one wanted, regardless of the facts," and goes on to suggest that she became an actress so that "she could be completely honest on her days off." These stories refuse that binary--they are unabashedly honest on their "days on," i.e. at their very core, whether they are simply narrating or performing, as some of them do. Some, more focused on the nuances of character, are teeming with sharp, striking observations, such about as the character who "always thought [they] would date someone who liked Tom Waits," who therefore "never listened to Tom Waits, figuring [their] eventual lover would fill[them] in on his essential gems..." So many of these stories are shadowed by absences and losses, sometimes declared right up front, such as in "The Club of the Missing," whose taut paragraphs might almost be stanzas, and others, such as "The Goodbye Party," which grapple with grief in the discomfort of what feels like real time. Some, like "The Bowling Story," play with the nature of storytelling itself, while others, like "I'm Such a Slut and I Don't Give a Fuck," do what only the best punk songs do--move so fast and cram so much in that they almost demand to be spun again, even while their searing final notes reverberate with a sustain pedal's tenacity. The last story, "Scheherazade," proves a fitting finale, as its evocation of that storytelling genius--itself given an unforgettable twist here--reminds us of what a range and plenitude of stories we've just imbibed.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never read or heard of the author before, but this collection looks intriguing, plus, at only about 200 pages, it didn’t require too much commitment to check out.
So…the surf-themed cover does nothing to prepare you for the book’s contents. These stories are heavy. Dark. Bleak. Overwhelmingly, they deal with some form of devastation as the emotionally hampered protagonists try to navigate their way through the minefields of existence.
And then, there are some quirky surreal tales in the mix…just because.
The overall effect is…well, not an easy read, but quality wise it is exceptional, with emotional intelligence dial set all the way up.
The stories here aren’t just slices of life, they actually slice…right to the bone. Reader beware.
But also, sometimes they are just sheer beauty, poetry in motion, stop and stare kind of thing.
While I never really remember the titles, my favorite was probably the one before the last one, with the last one being close to it. That sheer beauty thing on prominent display in those. Also, they were probably the lighter of the ones offered here, though with this collection light is relative. Oodles of LGBTQ+ characters but not exclusively. Just a good mix, like life ought to be. Even, of perhaps especially, one spent in the company of strangers.
Overall, not a sunny read but a very good one. Cautiously recommended to fans of literary fiction. Thanks Netgalley.

[Jen Michalski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A kaleidoscopic and candid exploration of the gritty corners of our desires and all that is left unsaid. By turns irreverent and deeply heartbreaking, Michalski masterfully constructs a collage of sexuality, belonging, and a search for what is possible atop strip malls, parking lots, and bowling alleys. Reminiscent, in some ways, of the genre-pushing work of Zach Doss, Etgar Keret, and Kim Chinquee, Michalski unequivocally carves out a space that is all her own—daring, deeply human, and often gut-wrenching.
—Sequoia Nagamatsu, National Bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark

Prepare to be plunged into the unexpected (turkey calmer, anyone? Meteor?). Jen Michalski is at her melancholy, hopeful, big-hearted best in this gorgeous collection of stories where the aching past—filled with might-have-beens and never-weres—resonate and haunt.
—Leslie Pietrzyk, author of Admit This to No One

Fueled by love, longing, and regret, these captivating stories drop us into the lives of people we come to care deeply about. These are rich, wild, surprising romps of stories with endings that wow. What an immense pleasure to be in the company of these strangers, thanks to Jen Michalski’s brilliant storytelling.
—Kathy Anderson, author of Bull and Other Stories

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Michalski's latest collection, characters set adrift by choice and circumstance seek connections in unlikely places. On one hand, the title is a testament to how our closest family and friends can come to feel like strangers, as in "The Long Haul," where a stylist named Raymond visits his uncle from whom he's been estranged since the unsolved kidnapping of Raymond's sister Joelle many years before. On the other hand, these stories explore how real intimacy can arise out of interactions with strangers, sometimes leading to better and stronger relationships than the ones we enjoy with our families; this is the case in the title story, where a twenty-year-old woman, ejected from her brother's house when he catches her in bed with his girlfriend, befriends some kind strangers at a hostel who give her a surprising perspective on herself: "It's intoxicating, almost, seeing yourself from the vantage point of someone else."

These stories are compactly written, sometimes funny, often sad. I especially enjoyed how Michalski writes dialogue and all the depictions of queer families and relationships.

I received an advance copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Ilana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories in The Company of Strangers were extremely touching, interesting, and maturely crafted. It was clear that Jen Michalski is a writer who understands her characters, has figured them out and can now offer them forward to the rest of us. I loved reading about Dan in the last story, who stood for me as the culmination of other characters in the collection who were struggling with human life and its choices (the way we all do), the way the story was about what we say yes to (Dan) and what we say no to (Regina). I found myself fascinated, too, by how Dan was a later incarnation of Jonas from the previous story. I felt as if I were being permitted to see an artist’s separate sketches of a subject from differing angles. “The Club of the Missing” was a short and subtle study of what it’s like to experience the disappearance of someone in your life, and that story in turn sort of laid the groundwork for the final two of the collection. I felt, in summary, that I was being asked to understand and sympathize with all of the characters in these stories, and I had no hesitation in terms of doing just that, from the first story to the last. I thank Arc Sirens for the free copy of the book but my review is being offered objectively and not based on having received it in this manner.

[David Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was blown away by the stories in this book. They are so immersive, and with characters so sharply drawn (even in the few cases that they aren't given names), that I forgot I was reading short stories, and the ends came as a surprise that jarred me back to the real world. The overall themes are loss and disorientation, which evocatively capture both the generation I and many of the characters are from (X) and the world in which we find ourselves, all doing our best to get by when nothing is quite as it was expected to be.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Michalski's writing has always brought us along for a ride off the beaten path, but this time she brings it to a masterful new level.

[Gwen Goodkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "The Company of Strangers," Michalski imbues her stories with the heartbreak of past regret. "Life suddenly seemed full of endless moments like these, to trip him up, to disappoint him, to complicate his life to the point of paralysis." (from 'Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?' a favorite of the collection)

At once familiar and enlightening, Michalski's stories are colored with her signature wit and humor. "You were more like [celery], and she was not food at all, maybe rice paper, which is technically a food, although transparent and mostly lacking in nutritional value."

In this collection, Michalski seamlessly shifts between reality and fantasy, between flash fiction and novella, proving her strength and range as a writer.

[Jennifer Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories in The Company of Strangers focus on the love, grief, and hope of working class lives. Michalski revisits childhood trauma in stories like the Long Haul, where a brother visits an uncle decades after his sister went missing. She explores the arc of childhood crushes in stories like Are You Ready to be Heartbroken, examining what happens when the pure flame of innocent love bumps into the murky realities of adult life. Many of the stories here are classic Michalski, meaning she attends with keen focus to the inner lives of her characters. But there are playful and experimental surprises too, like The Loneliest Creature on Earth, the story of a boy who becomes the oddities he reads about in a book called Weird and Amazing Facts.

[Tara Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a collection of short stories that touched on all different types of life situations, I found the last story to be the most touching as a mother facing grief along with another family struggling to stay together even though things we not right, with a teenager involved in the middle. But, you see this all the time where the one person is just helping and then fall in love with the person that they are helping This particular story that I'm speaking of the mother lost her daughter to suicide and don't know why, and her co worker wanted to help her and be there for her grief and formed a relationship.

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have known Jen for a long time and have read her other books. Her language is just so spot on - it makes you laugh, cry, smile, scream and yell. And the language she uses in The Company of Strangers is no different. Here, I learned about the dynamics of friends and family. Some good but most really f'd up. And though the people i read about were, for the most part, nothing like me - I mean who buys an uncle you haven't seen in eons who lives in hot Arizon a pair of tan suede slippers? - I connected with each of these stories because she wrote them in ways i couldn't tear my eyes from.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He didn't know at first how he felt about Karen having a daughter. Back then, he didn't know how he felt about Karen, period, only enough to go on another date. To see how things felt after another month. To keep saying yes. Now, five years later, he feels at times that his future has closed on him like the aperture of one of Karen's cameras." -"Scheherazade"

[John Vanderslice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful book of stories. So grounded, and so well-crafted. Michalski more than shows she is a master of the craft. The characters are engaging, very well-developed. And the stories wrench your guts apart. Michalski gets at the real, in every sense of that word--and in the best sense.