Five-Star Stranger
A Novel
Table of Contents
About The Book
Would you hire someone to be the best man at your wedding? Your stand-in brother? The father to your child?
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 as he 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.
“A sharp page-turner about our culture’s commodification of everything” (Debutiful), Five-Star Stranger is a strikingly vivid novel about isolation in a hyperconnected world, and “what it means to love and be loved” (Rachel Khong, author of Real Americans).
Reading Group Guide
FIVE-STAR STRANGER
Kat Tang
This reading group guide for Five-Star Stranger includes an introduction and discussion questions. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Introduction
The unnamed narrator of Five-Star Stranger finds his career as a top-rated Rental Stranger suddenly at risk when an eccentric client pushes him to break character. She threatens to expose his long-term role as father to a young girl as a paid gig if he doesn’t come clean to her, which forces him to confront the surprising depth of his feelings for his pretend family. The unexpected discoveries he makes will change the course of his life.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. The narrator keeps three rules for himself as a Rental Stranger: “(1) form no emotional attachments, (2) participate in no illegal activities, and (3) allow for no touching beyond a hug or holding hands” (page 17). What do you think of these self-imposed guidelines?
2. Analyze Stranger’s routine as he describes it at the beginning of Chapter 3. Discuss how he structures his time. If you were a Rental Stranger, how would you prepare for your meetings with clients?
3. Lily is described as an incredibly intelligent child. At the beginning of the novel, Stranger remarks on how she’s become even more inquisitive lately. Do you see seeds of suspicion in her line of questioning?
4. Darlene hires Stranger to act out scenarios with him for writing inspiration, and she pushes him to break character. Discuss their relationship and how it develops over the course of the novel.
5. At what point do you think Stranger developed genuine feelings for Lily and her mother, Mari? Why do you think that is?
6. Talk about the nightmare Stranger has at the end of Chapter 11. What do you think brought on this nightmare? What does it foreshadow?
7. We learn about the Rental Stranger profession primarily through the narrator’s perspective and in the few scenes where he talks with another rental. Do you think most Rental Strangers think like the narrator, or do you think he has a specific philosophy about the work?
9. As the novel progresses, we learn how complicated Stranger’s relationship was with his own mother, culminating with Chapter 13. How does your perspective of him as a character develop as you acquire this knowledge?
10. Discuss the argument between Stranger and Mari when he explains the predicament with Darlene. Mari cruelly describes him as a “parasite” (page 193). What do you think about her criticisms? How does her assessment align with your opinion of Stranger?
11. Early in the novel, Stranger admits that he is afraid of the dark. However, at the end of the novel, he describes willingly “pitching the room to blackness” (page 227). What does this change signify?
12. The pursuit of happiness is a central theme of the novel. Talk about the variety of opinions the characters express on the subject. How do you think Stranger’s relationship to happiness develops over the course of the novel?
About The Author
Kat Tang is a graduate of Columbia’s MFA program where she taught as an Undergraduate Writing Fellow. Born in China, relocated to Japan, and raised in California, she is fascinated by how we make and fake human connection in a technologically evolving world. Her short stories and graphic narratives have appeared in Electric Literature, The Margins, Pigeon Pages, and elsewhere. She currently lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
About The Reader
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (August 6, 2024)
- Runtime: 6 hours and 47 minutes
- ISBN13: 9781797175454
Raves and Reviews
"Cihi is a marvel, just as chameleonic as his protagonist, as he assumes and discards roles, personalities, and expectations with effortless ease. He’s particularly poignant as precocious Lily with all her tween attitude, balancing between adoring attachment and new disdain for her dad. With empathic ease, Cihi enhances Tang’s already stellar debut novel with all-star success."
– Terry Hong, Booklist
"Julian Cihi gives a convincing and moving portrayal of a young man who has many identities—except his own. Cihi’s range of voices and accents illuminates the diverse roles he adopts for clients who have hired him through the Rental Stranger app. While Cihi’s even tone brings out the unnamed protagonist’s professional attitude towards his work, his growing affinity for his recurring role as father to a young girl named Lily is revealed through beautifully restrained yet heartfelt enthusiasm. The quiet sensitivity of Cihi’s performance highlights the yearning for connection in a disconnected world and makes for a captivating listen."
– AudioFile Magazine
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Five-Star Stranger Unabridged Audio Download 9781797175454
- Author Photo (jpg): Kat Tang Photograph by Colleen O'Connell Smyth(0.1 MB)
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