Hello Stranger

Musings on Modern Intimacies

De: Manuel Betancourt

Narrado por: Manuel Betancourt

Manuel Betancourt's Hello Stranger explores modern queer romance and the expansive possibilities of ephemeral intimacies

"Hello stranger." As an opening line, you really can't ask for better.

Hello Stranger is a book about chance encounters—at a bar, through social media, in a bathhouse—and what a stranger can reveal about who we are and who we could still yet be. A stranger, after all, is a site of endless possibilities.

As Manuel Betancourt looks back on his past relationships, he turns to characters and narratives that helped him question notions of what monogamy and coupledom (and relationships and marriage) can and should look like. From films like Before Sunrise and Cruising to the poetry of Frank O'Hara and the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, Betancourt uses pop culture to make sense of the alluring prospect of forging intimacies with strangers—even, or especially, the strangers within ourselves.

At once a personal excavation and a broad cultural critique, Betancourt grapples with everything from online sexting and real-life cruising to divorces and throuples. Hello Stranger examines the intimacies we crave, value, and oftentimes destroy with rote familiarity.

©2025 Manuel Betancourt (P)2025 Tantor Media

Relatable and intimate

This is a very enjoyable and heartfelt book. Manuel gives an unconventional but relatable (at least to me) view of sexual and emotional relationships. Loved it!

Great book!

I loved Betancourt’s approach to exploring intimacy. At once personal, it is also filled with cultural touch points to help the reader situate and contextualize the beauty inherent in those initial (and sometimes brief) encounters of connection.