More Than It Hurts You

Darin Strauss is the author of the international bestseller Chang and Eng and the New York Times Notable Book The Real McCoy. Also a screenwriter, he is currently adapting Chang and Eng with Gary Oldman. The recipient of a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction writing, he teaches writing at New York University.

Meet the Goldin couple, who are indeed golden. Josh, a fair-haired ad exec, and his beautiful wife, Dori, have a perfect 8-month-old son and even a fabulous sex life. But Arthur Morey's narration hints at something beneath their self-congratulation. When their son becomes unconscious while at the hospital, the couple faces the scrutiny of Dr. Darlene Stokes. Stokes accuses the couple of Munchausen by Proxy and then finds she must cope with hospital politics as well as shadows from her past. Ultimately, the fact that Dori has bled her child into unconsciousness is overlooked by a hospital more concerned with its reputation than with child abuse. The irony is not lost on Morey, whose narration illuminates the extent to which mundane appearances can mask dark motives. S.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine