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Five-Star Stranger by Kat Tang

Literary fiction

Five-Star Stranger

Debut

We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Kat Tang, on your first book!

by Kat Tang

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Quick Take

This astute exploration of loneliness, connection, and the gig economy follows everyday life for a stranger-for-hire.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Psychological

    Psychological

  • Illustrated icon, Sad

    Sad

  • Illustrated icon, Unreliable_Narrator

    Unreliable narrator

  • Illustrated icon, Salacious

    Salacious

Synopsis

Would you hire someone to be the best man at your wedding? Your stand-in brother? Your husband?

In an age where online ratings are all-powerful, Five-Star Stranger follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the Rental Stranger app—a place where users can hire a pretend fiancé, a wingman, or an extra mourner for a funeral. Referred to only as Stranger, the narrator navigates New York City under the guise of characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients.

But, when a nosy patron threatens to upend his long-term role as father to a young girl, Stranger begins to reckon with his attachment to his pretend daughter, her mother, and his own fraught past. Now, he must confront the boundaries he has drawn and explore the legacy of abandonment that shaped his life.

Five-Star Stranger is a strikingly vivid novel about the commodification of relationships in a gig economy, isolation in a hyperconnected world, and the risk of asking for what we want from those who cannot give. This is the story of a man who finds out who he is by being anyone but himself.

Content warning

This book contains scenes that depict suicide.

Why I love it

Have you ever wanted to be somebody else? What if you could get paid to do it? In Five-Star Stranger, a mysterious man with a troubled past makes a living as a rent-a-stranger in New York City. This novel feels like a delicious peek behind the scenes of New York’s most choreographed and convoluted social rituals and into the lives of the people whose lies rest shakily upon them.

Thanks to his Oscar-worthy acting skills, ingenious costume changes, and a pathological need to give people what they want, our nameless protagonist becomes highly sought after on the Rental Stranger app. Morphing seamlessly from Wall Street finance bro to harried English Professor to alcoholic deadbeat in the space of a single day keeps him too busy to take stock of his own life. But a long-term gig as father to a perceptive nine-year-old proves his most satisfying role yet as he forms a real bond. And somewhere amongst elementary school homework and trips to the park, “Daddy” breaks his cardinal rule: don’t get attached.

Five-Star Stranger reminds us that we don’t have to be alone to be lonely and that making other people happy isn’t always in their best interests, or our own. To be truly known is more difficult and vulnerable than even the most nuanced performance, but may ultimately be the only way forward. With its fast-paced zipping between clients, neighborhoods, and roles but also rich emotional plumbing, it left me surprised and delighted from beginning to end.

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The Ten Thousand Doors of January
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Debut authors
View all
Weyward
The Stone Witch of Florence
Shark Heart
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
Dinner for Vampires
Ink Blood Sister Scribe
Lunar Love
Banyan Moon
The Collected Regrets of Clover
Afterparties
The Days I Loved You Most
The Wives
The Ministry of Time
The Astonishing Color of After
Did I Ever Tell You?
Middletide
Northwoods
A Flicker in the Dark
A Short Walk Through a Wide World
The Storm We Made
How to End a Love Story
Made for You
Here After
Adelaide
Spitting Gold
The Friend Zone
The Stars Too Fondly
The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye
The Other Valley
Maame
The Other Black Girl
Queenie
The Lost Apothecary
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
Paper Names
We Are the Brennans
People Like Her
Firekeeper's Daughter
The Writing Retreat
Olga Dies Dreaming
She Started It
Somebody's Daughter
Dearest
In the Weeds
Kaikeyi
Love & Other Disasters
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
Damnation Spring
A Little Hope
Camp Zero
The Last Story of Mina Lee
Ariadne
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
My Body
Sisters in Arms
Honey Girl
Vladimir
Big Friendship
Black Buck
White Ivy
Luster
Miracle Creek
Three Women
White Horse
Someday, Maybe
Peach Blossom Spring
Maid
The Woman in the Window
What She Knew
Shrill
Church of Marvels
Lacy Eye
Home is Burning
Dear Mr. You
The Sound of Gravel
The Night Charter
Before the Fall
Rich and Pretty
Girls in the Moon
The Possessions
The Impossible Fortress
One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter
Startup
The Dark Lake
The City of Brass
The Philosopher's Flight
The Oracle Year
Sweet Little Lies
Goodbye, Paris
The Age of Light
The Winter Sister
Enchantée
The Field Guide to the North American Teenager
Opposite of Always
Beyond the Point
Wicked Saints
We Hunt the Flame
Again, But Better
Free Food for Millionaires
On The Clock
Mind Games
The Chestnut Man
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
When the Stars Lead to You
My Friend Anna
Red, White & Royal Blue
Dangerous Alliance
The Sound of Stars
All the Stars and Teeth
Star Daughter
The Girl in the Mirror
The Kindest Lie
My Dark Vanessa
Five-Star Stranger
The Singer Sisters