The Hands of Strangers

by Michael Farris Smith

In the tradition of 'The Stranger' and 'The Old Man and the Sea', this masterful novella by critically acclaimed novelist Michael Farris Smith explores the human spirit and its capacity for faith and forgiveness in an imperfect world and begs the question: how do you survive when hope is lost?

Jon and Estelle walk the picturesque Paris streets but are living through the cruelest of realities the disappearance of their nine-year-old daughter, Jennifer, abducted from the Musee d'Orsay during a class field trip. Jon spends his days slugging through bus terminals and metro halls, posting flyers of his daughter, while Estelle has become a recluse, unwilling to leave the apartment in case the telephone rings.

Their relationship suffers as the passing time chips away at the hope of Jennifer's return. Then, a free-spirited artist enters their lives as unexpectedly as Jennifer has left it, luring Jon down a reckless path as he searches desperately for courage in the smallest signs. If their daughter is ever returned to them, will Jon and Estelle both be there to welcome her home?

First published in 2011 by Main Street Rag Publishing.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Novella, France

119 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Michael Farris Smith is an award-winning writer whose novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, NPR, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Oprah Magazine, Book Riot, and numerous other outlets, and have been named Indie Next, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections. He has also written the feature-film adaptations of his novels Desperation Road and The Fighter, titled for the screen as Rumble Through the Dark. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and daughters.

Reviews

[Annet · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tube stuck under Jon's arm like an appendage, as he never left the apartment without it, while she waited in the apartment, the winter light disappearing early in the evening, closing the apartment walls in on her while she waited and waited and waited. She knows if she picks up the tube and opens it, her next move will be to the kitchen with the map and cigarettes and bar stool. She knows that the duffel bag is empty but that it will have that feel - that feel of the metro halls, of the hands of strangers. Look for the good, she thinks as she avoids the corner as if it were occupied by a pack of rabid dogs...

This year I read the three books of Michael Farris Smith. Rivers, Desperation Road and now The Hands of Strangers. I like his books and style of writing, though all dark stories. This book, The Hands of Strangers, played in another scene than US, Paris. It is also a dark book, I actually had to stop some times reading, for the dark desperation of the story really got to me. It's about a couple who live in Paris, whose little daughter has been taken from a school trip and since has disappeared. A story we often read about in the papers. The couple looks for her all over in Paris, spread posters, wait by the phone, and we follow their separate processes of dealing with this growing desperation, slowly going down as well as their relationship falling apart. I won't disclose any more as it would be spoiling. Suffice to say the book is a mix of desperation and hope. The end was a surprise for me. Solid writer, dark stories but look forward to his new books. Four stars.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Unbelievable......not that I've read all four of Michael Farris Smith's novels, but that I've actually rated each one 5 Stars.....and for me, well deserved they are.

After DESPERATION ROAD, (my favorite) IN THE BEGINNING and RIVERS Smith's debut, IN THE HANDS OF STRANGERS (great title) was high on my to-locate list and lucky me found one left on-line at BN.

While only a short 115 page novella, I was nonetheless immediately swept away by a story of love meant to be in an atmospheric Paris.

The storyline is a fairly simple one, but distressing with the abduction of nine year old Jennifer. The search is intense as the reader experiences the parent's loss and despair as if they too are walking the streets and living the nightmare.

Week after week and drink after many a drink, a desperate Jon and Estelle struggle to keep their sanity and hold their marriage together hoping for a call, an update or any scrap of information leading to the whereabouts of their little girl....and the first one finally comes.

With a little faith and a lot of hope, in the end, there is healing and forgiveness.

Engaging short read that did not feel rushed. Highly recommend all of Michael Farris Smith's work and look forward to THE FIGHTER coming out in 2018.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the need authors added to my favored list, his book The River was the beginning. This book is his first, I believe and very unlike his others. Unlike, but just as good in a different way. This man can write, and now I'm convinced he can write just about anything. This is a novella, a shorter but intense and brilliantly portrayed look at unimaginable loss, and how it can pull people apart. How differently people act to the same set of circumstances.

Jon and Estelle found their way to each other in Paris, are enjoying their life, each other and their daughter, nine year old, daughter Jennifer. Life is theirs for the taking, but then, on a school trip Jennifer goes missing. Just like that, a parents worse nightmare, and their life as it was, is changed.

In a relatively few pages, Smith shows us this intense change, how they try to find their way, a new reality, trying to keep hope alive. Each react, as one can imagine, in a different way while searching for their daughter. A private inside and personal look into a couple's pain.

Now I only have the short prequel to The River, left to read. Hope he writes another soon.

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Near the end of this past November, I read my first Michael Farris Smith novel, ”Desperation Road”. It was one of those stories that grabs you from the first pages and pulls you in. I loved it, loved the story, the characters, the writing. This afternoon, the mail delivered a copy of ”In the Hands of Strangers” which I’d ordered just days ago after noticing my goodreads friend Carol's five star review. I knew it was a novella, and I couldn’t wait, I had to begin this 115-page story.

Jon and Estelle meet, fall in love in Paris, they have a child - a girl – Jennifer. They live a fairly simple, happy life until one day when Jennifer, now nine years old, disappears from a class field trip to the Musee d’Orsay.

We can’t imagine someone else’s pain under any circumstance, but when a child is abducted, life is turned upside down and nothing makes sense, and yet for Jon and Estelle, life still had to go on. They search when they can, Jon hands out flyers when he’s not working, and they try to hold on to hope, to each other, while they each search for a way to navigate this horror and hold onto what remains of their sanity and their love. Jon finds small degrees of distraction in more than one avenue. For Estelle, she tries to find faith in small miracles. She comes to believe that if only Jon will share her faith, will believe in the providence of small miracles, their faith will be rewarded.

Compelling, heartbreaking, and ultimately heartwarming story about families, faith, healing, love and forgiveness, this novella by Michael Farris Smith’s ”In the Hand of Strangers” joins ”Desperation Road” in my highly recommended books. I’m sure ”In the Beginning” and ”Rivers” will follow soon. Not as soon, unfortunately, ”The Fighter” which will be published Spring 2018.

Carol's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book I've read this year from this author, and a third 5 star rating.
This book is very different from Desperation Road (my favorite), and Rivers.
This novella takes us to the streets of Paris. John and Estelle's nine year old daughter goes missing during a school trip to a museum. We see their devastation and the toll this takes on their marriage as the months have gone by, and their hope is waning.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It is the first time she has lain in Jennifer's bed. She has been afraid to spend too much time in the room, afraid that being in her place might be a sign of replacing her, of moving on. But as she lies in the bed now, the fit of her body to the twin size bed pacifies her, holds her like a hand holding a wounded bird".

Every parents worse nightmare....
Jennifer, 9 years old, vanishes during a class field trip.

I found this ebook novella on Bookshout for 99cents.
I would rather have bought it on Amazon for 99 cents. ( it's not available).
SUGGESTION TO MICHAEL FARRIS SMITH...
"Get this book on Amazon"!!! I rather read ebooks on a clear-reading-screen which fits nicely in my hand: (my paper white)! I rather not hassle with technical transfers. I'm sure more books would sell. I wasn't crazy about my first Bookshout technical reading experience.

Other than my physical reading dis-pleasureI, I was deeply pulled into this story. Jon and Estelle are grieving individually and together over their missing child. Flyers are put out daily and everywhere. Estelle is never far from the phone ....there is hope .....
-secrets - anger- venting- drinking- cigarettes ( anything to pacify the pain). Jon meets a woman one day while passing out flyers who is a painter. ( he had stopped in a bar for a drink). Iris offers to paint a portrait of Jennifer.
When Estelle sees the painting she flips. There relationship begins to spiral down deeper....
There are a few ways this story can end, ( of course I'm not telling), but here's something I thought about:
.............."a single tragic event can shape generations of lives... can't it?"
So no matter what the outcome is....( you'll want to know), these characters lives are altered forever.

Readers are in the hands of a very gifted author......the writing is richly intimate.

Michael Farris Smith is becoming a new 'favorite'!!!! His novel "The Rivers" is riveting!!!

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh......

"But it was like being told to prepare for a bullet."

Jon and Estelle hold each other's hands as if in a death grip. The close proximity offers them but little warmth or comfort. It's all a futile exercise of moving aimlessly within the walls of their darkened Parisian apartment. They wait anxiously for news that they hope will never come.

Jennifer, their nine year old daughter, had been abducted while on a school field trip to the Musee d'Orsay. One minute she was in the midst of the other children focused on works of art, and in the next moment, she was gone. The police scour the area with no apparent clues. No one seemed to have captured a glimpse of her leaving the museum. And with whom?

Months pass and Jon has taken to the streets with daily trips through the neighborhoods putting up posters of Jennifer. He hands out flyers to passers-by bearing the image of his missing child. Jon finds it harder and harder to stare at this face with chin upturned offering so much promise.

Estelle rarely leaves their apartment with its tunnel-like confinement. Her greatest fear is that the phone may ring and they won't be there. She tacks up maps of the neighborhood and highlights the areas where Jon has passed out flyers. Estelle takes her station at the window, smoking and waiting.

Michael Farris Smith presents the story of a young couple torn apart as they go through the motions of trying to deal with the abduction of their only child. The impossible weight of that reality is almost too much to bear. Putting one foot in front of the other every day is a profound effort for one. Giving additional care and comfort to the other is a massive undertaking as a couple. There is little left in the well of hope.

As Jon takes to the streets with his flyers, he spots a painting in a local bar. The bars of Paris seem to beckon him in these days. The owner gives him directions to the artist's studio. It is here that he meets Iris. Smith implements the character of Iris as an impasse between past, present, and future.
Loss takes up residence in the hearts and inner sanctums of both Jon and Estelle for which no other soul is bid welcome.

The Hands of Strangers goes deep. Smith has an almost impossible task of leading you into the shadowy recesses of this couple's agony. But it is also here in which Smith catches the faint light of hope with wisps of courage amid the walls of despair. For this we know, the spark of connection dims, but it never dies.

I highly recommend this incredible novella as well as Desperation Road which was my favorite book of 2016. I will be reaching for Rivers soon. Smith loops emotion around each sentence and phrase like a cool breeze on a hot day. This is talent beyond compare.

[Tooter · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This is a very different style for Michael Farris Smith but still very good.

[Emerald Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't read this novella, you are seriously missing out. I started it and couldn't put it down!

Michael F. Smith captures the of pain these two characters brilliantly, and even those of us who don't have children can imagine how terrible the prospect of not knowing where your child is or if she is dead is.

The story follows Jon and Estelle in Paris as they search for their child, and I guarantee that you'll feel like you are there with them.

Brilliant book!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different from his novels, most noticeably not being set in the south. But still the theme of redemption is at the heart of this novella. This was an emotional love story. I can now say I’ve read all his works and this one is at the top of the list.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

deciding between a 3.5 and 4 rating

[Dem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review to follow

[Kendall · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this gripping tale of a child's abduction and the struggles of one couple to hang on to hope despite all odds, Michael F. Smith evokes the darkest fears a parent can imagine. His prose is clean and spare, his eye for detail, impeccable. The reader is transported, not to the Paris seen by tourists, but to the small streets and back alleys, the metro stations and small cafés.

[Nathan Oates · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent, intense novella. The premise is rich with pathos in itself: a nine year old girl goes missing while on a school field trip in Paris and her parents are forced to face the uncertainty and anxiety of her absence. Smith does a perfect job of building tension in a way that keeps you reading, while digging deep into the characters - their back stories, and their reactions to the crisis. The story is frightening, emotional, and complex. This novella will soon be released as an e-book by Simon & Schuster and I suggest everyone get a copy.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good psychological work in this short story. You get captured from the beginning. For me the disappearance of the little girl was the main plot. the other plot that actually makes the plot of this book was a bit unnecessary and i am sure the story would have done very well without it. the psychological study of the parents, of their everyday struggle is fantastic. the other plot would had made eventually a story of its own, with its own psychological consequences. here wasn't that convincing, just because the abductee story was so powerful.

[Sraah · Rating 5 out of 5]

her indifference has built a wall around her


Aware that the only thing she can be certain of is that she doesn’t know anything.


——

does grief well. i felt so much hurt; ache; pain.
i felt the weight and heaviness of their experiences, their lives

honestly…i could see this being a coen brothers movie, the quiet tranquility of inner chaos

[LeastTorque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounding up my rating of what was for me a very well-written book with depth about a couple dealing with their child’s abduction, that somehow left me less than impressed. Perhaps the artist element felt too clichéd. Or perhaps it’s just too long since I’ve been in Europe. Maybe I just needed the ending to be more drawn out or less dramatically and literarily pat.

[Robnrel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightmare fuel.

[James F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book by Michael Farris Smith you will not be able to put down. The subject matter is depressing a lost 9 year old child on a field trip in Paris. What the parents go thru how their relationship suffers. Afraid to leave their apartment in case the phone rings with new developments.
Very well written wanted more and more.

[G.J. Minett]

Where's the 6th star when you need it? Goodness me. Yet another little gem from a highly talented US writer whose name I'm going to sing from the rooftops until he receives the recognition he deserves this side of the Atlantic. This novella follows Jon and Estelle as they slog their way around the arrondissements of Paris, handing out flyers and putting up posters of their missing nine-year-old daughter. Estelle is desperate to keep alive the prospect of finding her, clutching every possible lead to her heart as if it were Jennifer herself she's embracing. Jon is desperately fighting the sense of futility that threatens to overwhelm him, painfully aware that he is going through the motions and unable to visualise anything like a positive outcome.

The writing is pitch perfect throughout, beautifully evoking the ache, the grief and the devastating sense of loss suffered by two individuals who have already lost so much and are stumbling blindly along a road that may cause them to lose even more. It may sound bleak but is anything but and the final chapters offer an emotional reward for anyone who has not given up on Jon and Estelle.

I can't recommend it highly enough . . . as was the case with Desperation Road and The Fighter. I'll be reading Rivers in the near future and then impatiently waiting for his next offering. Michael Farris Smith is a rare talent.

[Janna Childers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book accomplishes a lot. It is captivating from the get-go, pulling you into this world of paris cafes and countless cigarettes where two people are trying to get through the unthinkable — their 9-year-old daughter went missing. As the story unfolded I found the two main characters, Jon and Estelle, remarkably compelling. They struggled and failed and spiraled into darkness, but always managed to catch sight of a glimmer of hope. And that hope, although quite small, was able to gracefully carry me through their bleak world. Overall, this story of pain and loss and the unknown is able to be both heart-wrenching and hopeful. A great read.

[Lisa Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Desperation Road my favorite book of this year so far, I wanted to read the other books that Michael Farris Smith had written. The Hand of Strangers did not disappoint. It just ensures that I will continue to read his books. A beautifully written book about a not so beautiful topic. One of the most haunting last lines of a book I have read. Smith writes about relationships in a real and raw form. This novella may lack pages, but it does not lack emotions. Due to the shortness of the book the author is forced to compact his story, leaving the reader with a book/novella where every sentence and word matters.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plot of The Hands of Strangers could have been so cliche: abducted child, distraught parents and their consequent relationship struggles, etc. However, Smith takes the mundane and turns it into a magnificent study in characterization, not of the abducted child, but of her parents. Their individual stories, especially the backstory of Jon, the husband, carried the novella so well. In the end, this book had more heart and depth than so many full length novels that I've read. Smith's writing is, again, exceptional and it's almost disturbing how seemingly effortless his excellent prose is.

[Dr. Jon Pirtle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first M.F. Smith book I have read but it won't be the last.

The plot was simple enough: a mom and dad's daughter is kidnapped in Paris. The parents make every effort to find her. Leads come in from law enforcement. And a vixen enters the picture, too, complicating the parents' relationship.

The writing style reminds me of Hemingway. Few adjectives. Mostly subject and verb. Active voice. Set in Paris and Geneva.

Easy to read, understated in style, deep in its humanity.

[Chuck McGrady · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novella which tells the story of a husband and wife whose daughter is kidnapped. The author writes of their despair and hopelessness, and their malaise while waiting for their daughter’s return. The story takes place in Paris, a city that I’ve never visited. The story ends without one really knowing what the ending will be.

[Evelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were parts that were so good and the other was just so slow. It was like taking a 300 page novel down to the bare bones. I'm not a Paris fan so all the places that were mentioned I had no clue. Just wasn't for me

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding!

[KayG · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella, set in Paris, is an absorbing story of the disappearance of a couple’s young daughter, and the emotional stress that resulted.

[Dawn Bowater · Rating 1 out of 5]

Usually like Farris Smith but this did nothing for me at all. There was almost nothing going on. For a novella it sure was a tough read.

[Julie Etheridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never wanted to visit Paris....until I read this vividly descriptive book.