Poetry. Top Debut Collection of 2015, Poets and Writers. "This is a book of great beauty and of terrible suspicion regarding that beauty. This is a poet of intensifying linguistic gift and of terrible suspicion regarding that gift. Is there, yet, an Auto-Voyeuristic school of poetry? If not, then Jay Deshpande's troubling and gorgeous LOVE THE STRANGER 'watch yourself grow muscle in your failures / and hate it' could be the founding document." Josh Bell "Deshpande tracks those moments when we become strange to ourselves, when indecision and failure wrench us open. He writes with a kind of glowing, dreamlike clarity about desire, distraction, regret the ways we rush past ourselves, the ways we hurt each other. This book is full of searching and light." Joanna Klink "Elegant, dreamy, and hauntingly charismatic, Deshpande's poems captivate the way the recordings of their patron saint Chet Baker do, insisting time after time that exceptional artistry can spin even radical loneliness and excruciating sensitivity into music that radiates and affirms. Provoking 'a hunger become so animal' then tranquilizing it with 'orchestrated moonlight, ' LOVE THE STRANGER is a book, a shady neighborhood, and a mood that readers will return to again and again." Timothy Donnelly"

Spun around the real events of December 1642, when Dutchman Abel Tasman first sighted New Zealand and Maori people first saw Europeans, STRANGER LOVE is a tale seen through the eyes of Tasmans sixteen-year old cousin, Jakob, and the similarly-aged daughter of a Maori chieftain, Te Ao-mihia. Jakobs desire to leave his dull clerks job and become a sailor is brutally fulfilled, when, during an attempt to lose his virginity in a brothel, he is press-ganged onto a ship. His journey to the East Indies almost kills him, but once there he manages to join Tasmans expedition to the Great Southland. Te Ao-mihia also longs to break free from the rules and regulations of her role as a village princess by finding a boy to explore the secrets of love with. In the end, Tasmans expedition never sets foot on land and his arrival in Maori waters leads to misunderstandings and bloodshed. How, despite this tragic conflict, the Dutch boy and Maori girl meet and find love, albeit of a strange kind, only to see that love become a death sentence, carries this tale of STRANGER LOVE to its bittersweet climax and poignant resolution. Richard Woolley has the rare gift of keeping you anxious to know what happens next. David Robinson, The Times

Look, the future is all telepathy and disappointment and pretending we haven't always been winging it. Every day we're the strongest we'll ever be. What doesn't kill you hasn't killed you yet. From Greek mythology to Top 40, Pavlov to Sartre, the space station to the zoo, "Everyone I Love is a Stranger to Someone" collides dark humor and unexpected sweetness.

An urgent manifesto and a dramatic memoir of awakening, this is the story of revolutionary love. Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize • “In a world stricken with fear and turmoil, Valarie Kaur shows us how to summon our deepest wisdom.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love How do we love in a time of rage? How do we fix a broken world while not breaking ourselves? Valarie Kaur—renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer—describes revolutionary love as the call of our time, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. It enjoins us to see no stranger but instead look at others and say: You are part of me I do not yet know. Starting from that place of wonder, the world begins to change: It is a practice that can transform a relationship, a community, a culture, even a nation. Kaur takes readers through her own riveting journey—as a brown girl growing up in California farmland finding her place in the world; as a young adult galvanized by the murders of Sikhs after 9/11; as a law student fighting injustices in American prisons and on Guantánamo Bay; as an activist working with communities recovering from xenophobic attacks; and as a woman trying to heal from her own experiences with police violence and sexual assault. Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur reclaims love as an active, public, and revolutionary force that creates new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and our world. See No Stranger helps us imagine new ways of being with each other—and with ourselves—so that together we can begin to build the world we want to see.

FINALIST IN THE SOVAS (Society of Voice Arts and Sciences) Audiobook Award 2021 - Thriller Category. Ex-SAS soldier Ben Rider falls in love with his enigmatic married boss Sir Nikolas Mikkelsen, but Nikolas is living a lie. A lie so profound that when the shadows are lifted, Ben realises he's in love with a very dangerous stranger. Ben has to choose between Nikolas and safety, but sometimes danger comes in a very seductive package.

Bessie Randall had no intention of moving to Wyoming. But could the life she would never choose be better than the one she had planned?

He's awkward. He's adorable. He's alien as hell. Zylar of Kith B'alak is a four-time loser in the annual Choosing. If he fails to find a nest guardian this time, he'll lose his chance to have a mate for all time. Desperation drives him to try a matching service but due to a freak solar flare and a severely malfunctioning ship AI, things go way off course. This 'human being' is not the Tiralan match he was looking for.She's frazzled. She's fierce. She's from St. Louis.Beryl Bowman's mother always said she'd never get married. She should have added a rider about the husband being human. Who would have ever thought that working at the Sunshine Angel daycare center would offer such interstellar prestige? She doesn't know what the hell's going on, but a new life awaits on Barath Colony, where she can have any alien bachelor she wants. They agree to join the Choosing together, but love is about to get seriously strange.