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)