The Stranger

by Harlan Coben

The world doesn’t give even the slightest damn about us or our petty problems.

We get mad at someone for cutting us off in traffic or for taking too long to order at Starbucks or for not responding exactly as we see fit, and we have no idea that behind their facade, they may be dealing with some industrial-strength shit. Their lives may be in pieces. They may be in the midst of incalculable tragedy and turmoil, and they may be hanging on to their sanity by a thread.

An old Croatian proverb Adam had learned in college applied here: “The hunchback sees the hump of others—never his own.”