East End Books Welcomes Michael Lowenthal Sex with Strangers  for a virtual book event  3/31 @6pm.  *The book is $19.07 with tax included. add $5 fro media mail if you want the book mailed to you. Purchase it via this link & put the title in the notes section. : Donation | East End Books Ptown

This is a virtual book event. Registration with Eventbrite is required. Register here: Sex with Strangers w/ Michael Lowenthal 3/31 @6pm Tickets, Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89794715136           Meeting ID: 897 9471 5136

*The Zoom link can be used by all who register with eventbrite. Click on the Eventbrite link a few minutes before the event begins. You'll be in a virtual waiting room. We'll let you into the event at the start time.

Facebook Event Page: https://fb.me/e/3rKboLqB1

A fiercely honest exploration of the risks and rewards of contemporary relationships,Sex with Strangersembraces the dizzying power of attraction across the spectrum of sexuality and infatuation. In this fearless collection, lust and loneliness drive a diverse cast of queer and straight characters into sometimes precarious entanglements. Recognizing that any partner is unknowable on some level, Michael Lowenthal stretches what it means to be with a stranger and to have to navigate happiness, loss, and regret. A newly ordained priest struggles with guilt and longing when he runs into his ex-girlfriend. A woman weighs the cost of protecting her daughter from a man they both adore. A teenage busboy has a jolting brush with a famous musician. A young man tries to salvage a long-distance relationship while caring for his mentor, an erotic writer dying of AIDS. 

In edgy, disquieting stories, Michael Lowenthal traces the paths that attraction and erotic encounters take, baffling and rueful as often as electrifying. This fraught and funny collection forces us to grapple with our own subconscious desires and question how well we can ever really know ourselves. 

Michael Lowenthal is the author of four novels:The Same Embrace, Avoidance, Charity Girl, andThe Paternity Test. He lives in Boston. 

“What a stunning book this is, throwing off sparks at every turn. Michael Lowenthal’s characters tread as close as they dare to intimacy, then closer. I can’t remember the last time I read a collection this good.”—Rachel Kadish, author of The Weight of Ink 

“In this pitch-perfect collection of sly, shapely stories, Michael Lowenthal turns his discerning eye on relationships up and down the Kinsey scale. What a tremendous gift to read such wise insights into the various ways people seduce, betray, surprise, and ultimately transform each other.”—Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men 

“In sharp and often surprising prose, Lowenthal writes compelling, memorable characters, both queer and straight, who desire some form of intimacy. They want to be understood or seen, andthey want to know themselves.”—Carter Sickels, author of The Prettiest Star 

“This book, just like seeking sex with strangers in real life, is sometimes risky, sometimes about loneliness, and continuously offers lessons about the roots and vagrancies of our own desire. Sex with Strangers always leaves an impression and reminds us of the eternal resurrection of hope in the human heart.”—Justin Torres, author of We the Animals