Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend

In the bestselling tradition of Beaches comes a poignant and unforgettable novel of two very different women separated by miles and experience and the extraordinary long-distance friendship that changes and illuminates their lives.

Lara is a smart, sophisticated New Yorker who finds a lump in her breast and is frightened about her future. She goes online, looking for answers, which is where she “meets” Susan, a smart, steady, no-frills Midwesterner, who is a two-year breast cancer survivor. What begins as a chance encounter on the Internet quickly blossoms into a very special friendship. As their email messages fly back and forth, the women forge a powerful bond of trust, honesty and understanding. Before long they are sharing their lives in full – talking of husbands and children, dreams and desires, the daily cycle of success and setback – and together learning to laugh uproariously over the small and large absurdities of the world.

Lara and Susan originally go online looking for kind words and good advice, but find in each other the greatest gift of all: a true and forever friend. It is a relationship that will ring true with anyone who has ever faced adversity with the support of a treasured friend.

Vivid, funny , original, and profoundly moving, Laney Katz Becker’s debut is an intimate portrait of two complete strangers who become soul mates across hundreds of miles, and who discover the strength and the will to reach out and take hold of the wondrous stuff of life.