mark your calendars

Dreamy Darin Strauss will be reading from his third novel at Vroman's on June 24. I will be masquerading as a New Yorker by that point, but I will be sure to pick up More Than It Hurts You on some coast.

This third novel from Strauss (Chang and Eng) tracks a Long Island family crisis. Josh Goldin is a happily married TV airtime salesman with an eight-month-old son. When baby Zack is treated twice for mysterious and life-threatening symptoms, the head of a pediatric ICU, Dr. Darlene Stokes, tells Child Protective Services that she thinks Josh's wife, Dori, suffers from Munchausen syndrome, whereby the afflicted injure their children deliberately to draw attention to themselves. The Goldins' ensuing battle to keep Zack provides grist for public debate about issues ranging from parents' rights to race.