Mary-Beth Hughes delivers a seductive, deeply human, and sophisticated story collection about the universal need to be loved and the complicated imperfections that jeopardize the ties that bind us.

The stories in Double Happiness are extraordinary portrayals of the ordinariness of life. By pinpointing moments of discord when personal needs and morality clash with circumstances beyond our control, Hughes challenges our concepts of responsibility, trust, resilience, and betrayal. In 'Pelican Song,' a modern dancer who moonlights as a movie-ticket taker visits her parents' picturesque home only to discover that her stepfather is abusing her too-accommodating mother; 'Horse' follows maladjusted honeymooners in Atlantic City whose weekend is saved from emotional catastrophe by a horse that refuses to dive from its pedestal into the ocean; and in 'Rome,' a mini-holiday in New York turns from shopping and tea at the Plaza to a young girl's sharp discovery of her father's secret life.

With an elegant blend of humor and pathos, Hughes captures the turning points in relationships that make us wonder how well we really know the people we love, and ourselves. Double Happiness is a revealing meditation on the fragility of contentment and the lengths we must go to in order to sustain it.