Talking to Strangers

In July 2015, a young black woman named Sandra Bland was pulled over for a minor traffic violation in rural Texas. Minutes later she was arrested and jailed. Three days later, she committed suicide in her cell. What went wrong? Talking to Strangers is all about what happens when we encounter people we don't know, why it often goes awry, and what it says about us.

How do we make sense of the unfamiliar? Why are we so bad at judging someone, reading a face, or detecting a lie? Why do we so often fail to 'get' other people?

Through a series of puzzles, encounters and misunderstandings, from little-known stories to infamous legal cases, Gladwell takes us on a journey through the unexpected. You will read about the spy who spent years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the man who saw through the fraudster Bernie Madoff, the suicide of the poet Sylvia Plath and the false conviction of Amanda Knox. You will discover that strangers are never simple.

No one shows us who we are like Malcolm Gladwell. Here he sets out to understand why we act the way we do, and how we all might know a little more about those we don't.

“I love this book . . . reading it will actually change not just how you see strangers, but how you look at yourself, the news - the world . Reading this book changed me.”

Now that practically everybody seems to be spoiling for a fight, I have found Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers invaluable. Through a series of real-life stories, the Canadian journalist reminds us that even the sweetest strangers can be psychopaths, while the angry ones more often than not deserve our sympathy. His moral - to approach new people with caution and humility - has become my motto. -- Marcus Field Evening Standard The compelling, haunting, tragic stories accumulate into something greater, and resonate long after you put the book down James McConnachie, Sunday Times Book of the Year Gladwell's new book looks set to cause another stir with its exploration of why ordinary human encounters sometimes end in catastrophes. Radio Times Malcolm Gladwell made his name bringing intellectual sparkle to everyday subjects, and his new book - about how strangers talk to each other - is no exception. -- Sean O'Hagan Observer Taut, provocative, smart . . . Gladwell's cool, playful intelligence has made him one of our leading public thinkers Ian Leslie Fascinating... you should read the book. Not only will it change the way you see and approach strangers, the precision with which he analyses the incident is one of the most powerful and damning indictments you'll read of race relations in American society. -- Sathnam Sanghera The Times Magazine A wonderful provocation which Gladwell delivers like no other, an awakening to just one of the fascinations that lie in ordinary human experience . . . as ever, Gladwell's genius is in the telling. Spectator Superb writing. Masterful... bears all the marks that have made Gladwell one of the most successful non-fiction authors of his generation. -- Pilita Clark Financial Times A dazzling book . . . Gladwell is a rock star of nonfiction . . . Stories are well selected and brilliantly told, ideas are slowly revealed until the reader arrives at a conclusion they didn't expect. Gladwell is advancing ideas and, sure, they are all open to challenge . . . but they are stimulating and convincing - and you won't regret a minute you spend mastering them The Times I love this book . . . reading it will actually change not just how you see strangers, but how you look at yourself, the news - the world. Reading this book changed me. Oprah Winfrey

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five international bestsellers- The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is the host of the podcast Revisionist History and is a staff writer atThe New Yorker. He was named one of the 100 most influential people byTime magazine and one of the Foreign Policy's Top Global Thinkers. Previously, he was a reporter with the Washington Post, where he covered business and science, and then served as the newspaper's New York City bureau chief. He graduated from the University of Toronto, Trinity College, with a degree in history. Gladwell was born in England and grew up in rural Ontario. He lives in New York.

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