Mary-Beth Hughes is the author of the best selling novel, Wavemaker II, a New York Times Notable Book. Her stories have been published in The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The Georgia Review, and A Public Space. She lives in Brooklyn and Gallatin, NY.
"These stories are devastating, poignant, desperate, and
true."--Mary Gaitskill "Hughes is a quietly gorgeous writer,
lavishing startling metaphors on her halflost souls. . . . [The]
tone is often hushed, lending the collection a discreet,
old-fashioned quality reminiscent of a restrained writer like Mavis
Gallant. . . . Her stories begin like a train already in motion;
the reader must trot to get a handhold and swing up. The elegant
phrasing, the general hush, the condensation--all this contributes
to a satisfying sense of intimacy . . . in this delicate, tender
[collection]." --The New York Times Book Review "The stories in
this excellent collection meander with the sureness of streams
discovering their paths. Hughes keeps her prose close to her
characters' thoughts, and doles out the most crucial information on
the sly. . . . [Her] careful but unobtrusive organization gives
even the saddest revelations--and most revelations here are sad--an
air of the miraculous."--The New Yorker "[An] assured collection .
. . of stylish, intricate stories about seemingly ordinary people .
. . whose secrets, discoveries, longings, and subterfuges are
anything but. [Hughes is] an emerging master of the form."--Elle
"The reader eagerly waits for the hammer to fall in these eleven
wickedly drawn stories. . . . Hughes's characters are skillfully
delineated modern types, caught off-guard and vulnerable . . . [by]
surprising plot twists. . . . [An] intensely moving
collection."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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