This new collection from critically acclaimed writer Lily Tuck explores the hidden dynamics and unspoken conflicts at the heart of human relationships. In the novella, a married woman reads WUTHERING HEIGHTS at the same time that she falls under the erotic and destructive spell of her own Heathcliff. In the stories that follow, a single photograph illuminates the intricate web of connections between friends at an Italian café; a forgotten act of violence in New York’s Carl Schurz Park returns to haunt the present; and a woman is prompted by a flurry of mysterious emails to recall her time as a member of the infamous Rajneesh cult.

As the child of a German movie producer father who lives in Italy and a beautiful, artistically talented mother who resides in New York, Liliane’s life is divided between those two very different worlds. A shy and observant only child with a vivid imagination, Liliane uncovers the stories of family members as diverse as Moses Mendelssohn, Mary Queen of Scots and an early Mexican adventurer, and pieces together their vivid histories, through both World Wars and across continents.

I MARRIED YOU FOR HAPPINESS is not only a moving elegy to a man and a marriage, but also a meditation on the theory of probability and how chance can affect both a life and one's consideration of the possibility of an afterlife.