The Stranger Game

The Stranger Game
Peter Gadol

Are you ready to play?‘An enigmatic novel . . . a metaphysical thriller’ Edmund White‘Like the best of Highsmith and Hitchcock rolled into one’ Marisa SilverRebecca’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Ezra, has gone missing, but when she notifies the police, they seem surprisingly unconcerned. They suspect he has been playing the ‘stranger game,’ a viral hit in which players start following others in real life, as they might otherwise do on social media.But as the game spreads, the rules begin to change, and disappearances are reported across the country.Curious about this popular new obsession, and hoping that she might track down Ezra, Rebecca tries the game for herself. She also meets Carey, who is willing to take the game further than she imagined possible.In playing the stranger game, what leads Rachel closer to finding Ezra will take her further and further from the life she once lived . . . A compulsive, inventive thriller for fans of The Girl Before, Little Deaths and The Book of Mirrors

A literary suspense novel in which an eerie social game goes viral and spins perilously—and criminally—out of control.

Rebecca’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Ezra, has gone missing, but when she notifies the police, they seem surprisingly unconcerned. They suspect he has been playing the “stranger game,” a viral hit in which players start following others in real life, as they might otherwise do on social media. As the game spreads, however, the rules begin to change, play grows more intense and disappearances are reported across the country.

Curious about this popular new obsession, and hoping that she might be able to track down Ezra, Rebecca tries the game for herself. She also meets Carey, who is willing to take the game further than she imagined possible. As her relationship with Carey and involvement in the game deepen, she begins to uncover an unsettling subculture that has infiltrated the world around her. In playing the stranger game, what may lead her closer to finding Ezra may take her further and further from the life she once lived.

A thought-provoking, haunting novel, The Stranger Game unearths the connections, both imagined and real, that we build with the people around us in the physical and digital world, and where the boundaries blur between them.

PETER GADOL’s six novels include Silver Lake, Light at Dusk and The Long Rain. His work has appeared in journals such as Tin House, StoryQuarterly, Story, Bloom and the Los Angeles Review of Books. A former NEA Fellow, Gadol lives in Los Angeles, where he is chair of MFA Writing at Otis College of Art and Design.

PeterGadol.com (http://PeterGadol.com)

Also By Peter Gadol (#u37ffbc79-453e-5acc-8861-f754a868840e)

Coyote

The Mystery Roast

Closer to the Sun

The Long Rain

Light at Dusk

Silver Lake

The Stranger Game

Peter Gadol

Copyright (#u37ffbc79-453e-5acc-8861-f754a868840e)

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018

Copyright © Peter Gadol 2018

Peter Gadol asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9781474092975

Advance Praise for The Stranger Game

“‘Following’ gets a whole new meaning in Peter Gadol’s stylish psychological thriller set in the future of the day after tomorrow. A moody, increasingly dangerous house of mirrors where the rules morph as his players become more obsessed with ‘the stranger game.’”

—Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander and The Revolution of Marina M.

“The Stranger Game is a gripping and nuanced novel that asks whom we trust and why. It is about being an insider and an outsider, about being watched and finally being truly seen.”

—Ramona Ausubel, author of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty and No One Is Here Except All of Us

“The ingenious conceit of Peter Gadol’s novel—to literalize our obsession with online following—yields a psychological thriller that brilliantly exposes the state of the culture, one in which we have traded authentic emotional connection for a virtual one whose implications for the soul are troubling. Like the best of Highsmith and Hitchcock rolled into one, The Stranger Game is a compulsively absorbing and thought-provoking triumph.”

—Marisa Silver, author of Little Nothing and Mary Coin

“If you’ve ever spent time people watching, or if you yourself have ever felt watched or followed, you’ll see yourself in Peter Gadol’s The Stranger Game—and it will unnerve you. This is the perfect novel for a world in which real human connection is so elusive.”

—Will Allison, author of Long Drive Home

“Imagine a metaphysical thriller inspired by Patrick Modiano and illustrated by Giorgio de Chirico and you’ll have an idea of this enigmatic novel, The Stranger Game.”

—Edmund White

For Chris

Somehow never strangers

Contents

Cover (#u7e8a1042-fdd7-5284-bfad-27040a9b513c)

Back Cover Text (#u0d376587-b1f6-53fd-81f1-60e4f17d49f1)

About the Author (#u290688c3-68be-5229-a94b-b79276de0413)

Booklist (#ua3e1642c-83c1-5896-8188-ea214e5d5dad)

Title Page (#udcd705de-a409-526a-b86f-5fb8f23c1d2e)

Copyright (#ufdf6a2a8-1368-5f99-80d8-0af14ec770b3)

Praise (#ua9d02b38-9848-5382-93e8-7680e2a78d2b)

Dedication (#ud21151a2-0fde-5bcd-aa5e-b56401a42fe4)