The poet and novelist Xander Beattie both remakes and artfully celebrates James Baldwin's iridescent prose in this hauntingly exquisite pocket-sized meditation on desiring – and fleeting intimacy with – strangers.

Beattie was so struck by the shimmering beauty of Baldwin's writing that he took page 81 of his extraordinary novel, Giovanni's Room, and reworked it with marker pen, scissors and glue to create what's known as a "blackout poem" (where words from an existing text are obscured to allow what remains to create new and different meaning). Blackout or erasure poetry has been described as "the art of framing what’s already there".

another boy, a stranger is not only a haunting poetic remix – it's also a provocation to engage creatively, slowly and lovingly with the printed word. Whether you make a blackout poem of your own or simply allow your eyes to linger on the page, this is an invitation to slow down, celebrate and remain immersed in a passage of writing that you adore.