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Darin Strauss will be at Borders West next Wednesday, July 9, to read from "More Than It Hurts You." - File Photo

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If there's one thing author Darin Strauss likes to ponder, it's questions of the self. After all, this is a writer best known for "Chang and Eng," his critically acclaimed historical novel about conjoined twins.

"Just because you're joined to someone else doesn't mean you know them," he said in a recent telephone interview.

Although his latest novel, "More Than It Hurts You," could be described as a departure -- it's set in contemporary times with several controversial modern issues at its heart -- the underlying theme of how well one can know their most intimate companions is a thread that runs through all of Strauss's work.

When "More Than It Hurts You" opens, Josh and Dori Goldin have an ideal life. Josh's career in television advertising is flying high, and Dori has devoted herself to caring for the couple's son, Zack, as a stay-at-home mother. Then Dori rushes Zack to the emergency room for an unexplained illness, and the couple's picture-perfect life begins to unravel.

The attending physician, Darlene Stokes, accuses Dori of deliberately hurting Zack to fake the illness (a diagnosis known as "Munchausen by proxy") and gets law enforcement involved. Eventually Zack is removed from the Goldin home, and the couple fights back by contacting the press. Stokes' career is on the line when her past as a black activist and her failed marriage to a Jewish man become fodder for the press.

Strauss said Munchausen by proxy -- a disease that has gotten a lot of press in recent years and that remains highly controversial -- taps into a deep cultural malaise that he describes as "the modern mania of attention." Diagnosed only in rich nations like the United States and Great Britain, experts say Munchausen by proxy is different from regular abuse, because the abusers hurt their children in order to gain attention for themselves.

In fact, Strauss said he has begun to toy with the idea that Munchausen by proxy has larger cultural ramifications. Since he began teaching writing at New York University in 2000, student stories he's reading have become more violent, and people seem more uncertain about the future. "More Than It Hurts You" reflects this cultural unease on many levels -- from racial politics to questions of parenthood to the role of the press in everyday life.

The novel found its genesis in the same place that the author's first two books, "Chang and Eng" and "The Real McCoy," did -- in a good story. A friend told Strauss, in passing, about a doctor who discovered a woman was poisoning her child. When the doctor tried to help authorities make a case for taking the child away, the child's family went to the press and ruined the doctor's reputation.

The anecdote captured Strauss's imagination. He realized he could talk about family, parenthood, marriage, gender and privacy -- all of his favorite topics. He also could add race to the mix.

"When you have a good story, it makes your job easier," he said. "I've never thought of myself as a historical novelist. I just always seek out the good stories."

For example, "Chang and Eng" grew out of Strauss's interest in identity and its effects on the human experience. He had already imagined Siamese twins who struggle with their individual experiences when he ran across the story of Chang and Eng Bunker, a set of conjoined (sometimes referred to as Siamese) twins who lived during the Civil War era. The story was largely untold, and Strauss ended up writing both a definitive history and a page-turning story about the brothers' lives.

If there's any of the author's experience in "More Than It Hurts You," he concedes it's probably in Dori. He originally wrote Dori as an entirely unsympathetic character, but he quickly realized that she was a caricature. So he set out to rewrite her, and he found himself using every likable detail he had observed in his own wife. Beyond that, "More Than It Hurts You" is fiction in the best sense of the word -- both page-turning and thought-provoking.

Currently Strauss is collaborating with actor and screenwriter Gary Oldman to write a script for the movie version of "Chang and Eng." The two work via e-mail and occasionally in person. Oldman has done the majority of the writing, with Strauss providing some edits and clarifications.

This screenplay will be the third try for "Chang and Eng." Strauss wrote the first two scripts that never made it to the screen, and when Oldman optioned the story, Strauss said he couldn't write yet another adaptation. So Oldman, who has plenty of screenwriting experience, stepped in to write the latest version.

Strauss will read from "More Than It Hurts You" with his sister-in-law, Madison author Rae Meadows ("Calling Out" and "No One Tells Everything"), at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 9, at Borders West, 3750 University Ave.