"The Stranger Next to Me" is a novel written by the contemporary author Irina Binder and was published in 2018. It has 288 pages and was released by the publishing house For You.

This novel presents the story of three friends: Selena, Alessia and Adela, who are different ages, have different stories, and a past full of trauma and regrets that influence their decisions in the present. Their stories are, as the author states, inspired by reality, uncensored and unmodified. "I thought at one point not to exaggerate, but I will write it as I feel, without censorship... I am sure that you will like it and that you will love the characters very much. The story is inspired by reality. I hope that I will be able to convey to you the emotions of the characters, but also the messages that the story gives them." (Irina Binder)

With her unmistakable style and with the finesse and courage that have definitively conquered millions of readers, Irina Binder once again breaks patterns, habits, and prejudices, to reveal what we really are and to refine our gaze in order to make us see that who we are is really strange and why.

Selena is a woman who has reached the age of 40 but who was married to a man who did not appreciate her, who made her feel like a servant and who did not offer her the desired affection. She found the strength to divorce him and restart her life from scratch, relying only on her own strengths. After a while she falls in love with a man much younger than her, but who loves her and respects her as she has always wanted. Does she manage to be happy with him despite the prejudices and traumas of the past?

Alessia is a young woman who falls in love with a man she met on Facebook. He created a fake account and made the young woman fall in love with him, but unfortunately, she finds out the truth. Does Eduard manage to win Alessia back?

Adela is a woman who was a "prisoner" in a marriage with an indifferent man, who judged her for everything she did. She ended up not leaving the house anymore, not working anymore, because her husband was jealous and didn't allow her to go to work and so she ended up gaining weight and looking in a deplorable way, becoming unkempt, with many extra kilos and full of sadness. Will she find the strength to escape from this marriage and become the strong and beautiful woman she used to be?

This novel presents life stories from which each of us believe we have something to learn, and we can use the life stories of the three women as examples. In that way we will learn from the mistakes they made and avoid making them ourselves. We have read this book and we have been personally impressed by the realistic way in which the lives of the main characters are described, and we have managed to learn from their mistakes.

Bistriceanu Alexia and Ocneanu Mihai – 11C