Passenger reads a book on a flight, unaware the author is sitting right next to her

Writers dream of connecting with readers, just not usually while sitting right next to them on a plane.

Novelist and poet Joseph Fasano recently had that rare and surreal experience. Mid-flight, he noticed the woman seated beside him was completely absorbed in The Swallows of Lunetoo—his own novel. She had no idea she was reading it inches away from the person who wrote every word.

Fasano captured the moment in a post on X (formerly Twitter), snapping a discreet photo of the book and asking his followers: what he should do.

Strangers meeting on an airplaneCanva

Eventually, he struck up a casual conversation, starting with a simple question about whether she was enjoying the book. When she said yes, he responded that he’d read it “about 100 times.” Still, she didn’t recognize him, though the two quickly fell into easy small talk about travel and family.

"I asked them if they're traveling for work or fun and they said 'just a little trip to see family,' and looked directly at me for a moment and...we're still here."
— Joseph Fasano on X

Followers were charmed by the interaction. One described the imagined tension from the author’s perspective in poetic detail:

“You suffer. That’s the story now. For hours.”

Others shared their own brush-with-recognition stories, including one person whose Facebook friend unknowingly posted a photo in front of a mural the commenter had painted. “I was SO touched,” they wrote.

Crowded flightCanva

Fasano’s thread struck a chord. It quickly went viral, gaining over 2 million views and sparking thousands of likes and retweets. For many, it wasn’t just about the coincidence—it was about the human connection, the intimacy of a shared story, and the way words bridge strangers in unexpected ways.

Reading on a planeCanva

For those unfamiliar with Fasano, he’s a widely respected author from Goshen, New York, with several poetry collections and novels to his name. His 2011 collection Fugue for Other Hands won the Cider Press Review Book Award, and his 2020 novel The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing received critical acclaim.

By the time the plane landed, Fasano and his seatmate had shared not just an aisle, but a memorable and moving exchange. And though she didn’t recognize him at first, she gave him something few writers get to witness: someone lost in the world they created.