Strangers
At your speed≈ 5 hrs
Pages257
Audiobook≈ 8½ hrs
257 pages works out to roughly 77,000 words. At an average 250 words a minute that is 5 hrs — a weekend's reading.
How long does it take to read Strangers?
Strangers is 257 pages, or roughly 77,000 words. How long that takes depends on how fast you read:
| Your pace | Words per minute | Time to finish |
|---|---|---|
| Slow | 175 | 7½ hrs |
| Average | 250 | 5 hrs |
| Fast | 400 | 3 hrs |
Estimated at about 300 words per page. Most adults read between 200 and 300 words a minute — use the reading-speed control to set your own pace and every time on the site adjusts.
Every reading time on the site updates to your pace. Page counts are an estimate, so treat the hours as a good guide, not a stopwatch.
Common questions
- How long does it take to read Strangers?
- About 5 hrs at an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. Strangers runs 257 pages, roughly 77,000 words — so at a slower 175 wpm it is nearer 7½ hrs, and at 400 wpm closer to 3 hrs.
- How many pages is Strangers?
- 257 pages, which is about 77,000 words and 5 hrs of reading. Editions vary, so we take the figure two of our three sources agree on.
- Is Strangers worth reading?
- What we can tell you for certain is the cost: 257 pages and about 5 hrs of your time, or 3 hrs if you read quickly. Whether that is worth it depends on the hours you have.
- How long is the Strangers audiobook?
- About 8½ hrs, estimated from the 77,000 words at a typical narration pace of 150 words a minute. Real editions vary by narrator, usually by well under an hour.
From the publisher
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Burden’s searing, probing memoir explores . . . what she learned about intimacy and her own spirit.”—People “A beautifully written instant classic.…
Strangers is gripping and heartbreaking and a must-read for every wife—and husband.”—Graydon Carter “Asks us to examine life’s most perplexing questions: Can we see the invisible fault lines in a marriage or truly know the people closest to us?”—Lori Gottlieb It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn’t. In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together—building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume. In Strangers, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed. The discreet, compliant woman she once was—someone nicknamed “Belle the Good”—gives way to someone braver, someone determined to use her voice. With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love. Strangers is a stunning, deeply moving, compulsively readable memoir heralding the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent.
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