THE OCEAN HOUSE

A beautiful new work of fiction told through interconnected stories, exploring the fractured lives of families from a beach town and the consequences of loss passing through the generations.

Faith, a mother of two young children, is in need of summer childcare. As a member of a staid old beach club and a self-made business consultant, she is appalled when her brother-in-law sends her an unruly, ill-mannered teenager named Lee-Ann to help, appearing more like a wayward child than competent help. What begins as a promising start to a redemptive relationship ends in a tragedy that lands Faith in a treatment facility, leveled by trauma. Years later, Faith visits her daughter Cece in college, discovering her with a newly shaved head and unruly force, while Faith's mother is in the early stages of dementia, slipping in and out of clarity, telling lucid tales of her own troubled youth.

MARY-BETH HUGHES is the author of THE LOVED ONES, WAVEMAKER II, a New York Times Notable
Book, and DOUBLE HAPPINESS, which earned a Pushcart Prize. Her stories have been published in The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Georgia Review, and A Public Space.