nal short stories, Christine Bagley demonstrates her exceptional talent for diverse storytelling. So intimate are the inner lives of her characters; it's like peeking through your neighbor's window or eavesdropping at a closed door.

A woman, unable to conceive a child, struggles to accept her husband's infidelity and a child by another woman. A man's lengthy isolation on a deserted beach drives him to the brink of insanity and an unspeakable act. A desperate, elderly woman who loses her husband resorts to changing her appearance to a famous movie star in order to win him back. A wealthy recluse hires a young artist to paint him as King Ludwig II, who he believes is his doppelganger. A woman hung in a shameful event from the past returns to right history through the author who is writing about her.

In these tales of love, murder, and misfits lies the complexity of life and the decisions we make because of it.