Fiction. "Mary Troy's BEAUTIES is a lovely novel, a character-driven anatomy of the odds and ends of relations and friends we cobble together in the modern age as our most beloved possession, our true family. Set in the mean streets of south St. Louis in the endearing, if always failing, Alibi Café, BEAUTIES follows the cynical, one-legged Bev, and the strikingly gorgeous Shelly, as they serve up generous heapings of biscuits and gravy to a ragtag motley of troubled and endearing souls who gravitate to the haven the café offers. Love percolates like drip coffee as Shelly seeks fulfillment with a duplicitous P.I., as the beleaguered Bev struggles through red tape to adopt the neglected Toby from a world that wants to destroy him. More than anything, the ultimate lesson of BEAUTIES is one that deserves the vivid and emotional investigations Troy lavishes on it: that though the world on its surface seems a bruised and broken place, true beauty lies beneath if we only stop to look"—Tony D'Souza.

Author City: SAINT LOUIS, MO USA

Mary Troy is the author of Joe Baker Is Dead, THE ALIBI AND OTHER STORIES, and BEAUTIES. Her stories have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Boulevard, Greensboro Review, and numerous other publications. She is an assistant professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and director of the MFA Program. She is also a senior editor of Natural Bridge. She has lived in Arkansas and Hawaii as well as Missouri.

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