Invisible Stranger

In this remarkable exhibition of Arturo Patten's photographs of the residents of a small town in Maine, Russell Banks provides a text that evokes the hauntedness of desolate landscapes (for which his novels, particularly Cloudsplitter, are so well known), along with a sense of the life people endure in such places.

He also brilliantly explores portraiture and the ways in which we see ourselves in his reflections upon Patten's work.

The Invisible Stranger will, of course, have a strong regional audience, but Banks's eloquent writing elevates the book to appeal to readers of such works as Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.