More Than It Hurts You » (Unabridged)

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 for the screen with Gary Oldman. Strauss teaches at New York University.

The acclaimed author of Chang and Eng returns with a literary showstopper -- a beautifully realized novel that at its heart is the story of a woman who will risk everything to feel something; a doctor whose diagnosis brings her entire life into question; and a man who suddenly realizes that being a good husband and a good father can no longer comfortably coexist.

Josh Goldin was savoring a Friday afternoon break in the coffee room, harmlessly flirting with coworkers while anticipating the weekend at home where his wife, Dori, waited with their eight-month-old son, Zack. And then Josh's secretary rushed in, using words like intensive care, lost consciousness, blood. . . .

That morning, Dori had walked into the emergency room with her son in severe distress. Enter Dr. Darlene Stokes: an African-American physician and single mother whose life is dedicated both to her own son and navigating the tricky maze of modern-day medicine. But something about Dori stirred the doctor's suspicions. Darlene had heard of the sensational diagnosis of Munchausen by Proxy, where a mother intentionally harms her baby, but had never come upon a case of it before. It was rarely diagnosed and extraordinarily controversial. Could it possibly have happened here?

As their four lives intersect with dramatic consequences, Darlene, Dori, and Josh are pushed to their breaking points as they confront the nightmare that has become their new reality. Darin Strauss's extraordinary novel is set in a world turned upside down-where doctors try to save babies from their parents, police use the law to tear families apart, and the people you know the best end up surprising you the most.

About the Author
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.

The Washington Post - Ron Charles

If you don't belong to a book club, Darin Strauss's bitter and brilliant new novel is reason enough to start one. You can always disband afterward, and in any case your discussion of More Than It Hurts You may be so heated that you'll never talk to those people again. Strauss has packed this gripping story with the whole radio dial of divisive, hot-button issues…Strauss made a name for himself with two historical novels based on real celebrities: Chang and Eng (2000), about the original Siamese twins, and The Real McCoy (2002), about a boxer at the turn of the last century. This time around, with an extraordinary degree of breadth and confidence, he's moved to a hyper-contemporary setting and invented his own characters.