This contemporary twist on Brief Encounter is a tender meditation on what might have been. 'Maybe we love people because they won't let us know them.'A summer's evening in Manhattan. Nothing - not cold drinks, not showers not a stroll through the chilly aisles of an all-night drugstore - can undo the heat's hold on the city.

Julian is half watching the evening news, his husband filling the dishwasher. That's when it arrives. An email with the subject line: 'From Paul Axel'.

An email about a dead man from Carol - a woman Julian has never met. Paul has left a message he'd like her to relay. Emails are exchanged.

Morning coffee at the Bryant Park Grill is agreed. Carol, fulfilling Paul's final request, wonders how she will tell Julian of a life - and a love - he has no idea existed. A life, encased in a flash drive, containing multitudes.

Readers adored Stowaways:'I have unashamedly fallen in love with Andre Aciman's writing. . .

I couldn't stop reading until the very last page.''It's a really beautiful book of two people talking about love.''Poignant, heart-warming, stimulating and challenging. All readers should recognise something of themselves in this story.''I had no idea what to expect going into this book but in true André Aciman style, I was floored by the sheer beauty of it.'