A Stranger on the Planet (ePub)

Adam Schwartz is a Senior Lecturer in the Writing Program at Wellesley College. His stories have been widely anthologized, and portions of A Stranger on the Planet have previously been published as stories in The New Yorker. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. This is his first novel.

“A Stranger on the Planet is charming. . . . [Schwartz's] sincerity is genuinely winning. . . . Original, sensitive and, unlike its hero, it's always, always likable.” —NPR

“Masterful and richly textured.” —The Boston Globe

“A Stranger on the Planet is the first great Jewish novel of 2011 and a book for outsiders of all stripes, one that serves as a reminder of how many chapters we all get.” —Jewcy

"Funny, honest and obsessive, A Stranger on the Planet is finally as beautiful as it is driven. Charming, too: Adam Schwartz is one part Philip Roth, but with a neurosis all his own." —Gish Jen, author of World and Town

"With exhilarating wit, skill and passion Adam Schwartz covers more than thirty years in Seth's life as he fights with, negotiates, distances himself from and embraces his vivid, difficult relatives. A Stranger on the Planet brings us a hero who is almost heroically anti-heroic, and who can be counted on to almost always act, endearingly, in his own worst interests. I would happily have followed him anywhere." —Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street

“This is a stunningly good book. Adam Schwartz bestows the story of the Shapiro family to us with irresistible grace, humor, and conviction. A Stranger on the Planet is utterly charming, and deliciously satisfying.” —Don Lee, author of Lonesome Lies Before Us and Wrack & Ruin

"With a quirky frankness, A Stranger on the Planet reveals how the hardships that fate swings our way can make us attuned to life's larger possibilities."—Sana Krasikov, winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for One More Year