"Listening to--and now reading--Ari Shapiro is both revelatory and comforting. Revelatory in how he coaxes out and shapes a story, comforting that he is actually doing so. He is a beacon of idiosyncratic frankness and curiosity in an increasingly banal and complicit journalistic world. Here, though, it is he who is the story, and his scoop is letting us meet his true self: as good and kind and effortlessly brilliant a man as you could hope to meet. Every page exudes his utter positivity and made me long for another adventure with him."
Alan Cumming, New York Times-bestselling author of Not My Father's Son: A Family Memoir and Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life
"The Best Strangers in the World is a witty, poignant book that captures Ari Shapiro's love for the unusual, his pursuit of the unexpected, and his delight at connection against the odds."
Ronan Farrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and New York Times-bestselling author of Catch and Kill and War on Peace
"Ari Shapiro takes us with him from his boyhood in Fargo, North Dakota, to a globe-trotting journalistic career. The wonderful tale he tells is through the eyes of the people he has met as strangers and the stories of their humanity. Along the way there are lots of laughs and tears and important reflections that will change how readers see the world, too."
Nina Totenberg, New York Times-bestselling author of Dinners with Ruth
"This book is the dinner party conversation you're always hoping to have--empathetic and erudite essays that circle the globe but find time to zero in on sparkling, tiny details. With his breathtakingly vast set of talents, interests, and experiences, Ari Shapiro is one of the most interesting people you'll encounter. But his beguiling memoir invites the reader to look outward with him. Like a true journalist, he isn't the story. Rather, The Best Strangers in the World captures snapshots of our complex world and its endless capacity for beauty. Infused with queer magic, intellectual curiosity, and music, Shapiro's writing voice, like his reporting and performing voices, greets you like an old friend and invites you into a space you never want to leave.
