“Rich in sensory detail...a demanding read that rewards patience.”— New York Times "Edith Wharton and Henry James own the mansion housing this slant of prose, all style and substance, and Hughes moves ever closer to such mastery with... The Loved Ones .”— Elle "Bracing...Hughes is preternaturally alert to subtleties of appearance, gesture, and sensory detail.”— New Yorker In The Loved Ones , nationally best-selling Mary-Beth Hughes takes her gimlet eye deep into the secret places between men and women to give an incisive portrayal of one family’s struggle to stay together against stacked odds of deception, adultery, and loss. Set in the late 60s and early 70s against the backdrop of the booming cosmetic industry in New York and London, this is a brilliantly nuanced and sweepingly cinematic novel of relationships defined by an era of glamour and decadence.