From one of America''s most renowned storytellers comes a novel about love and deceit, and lust and redemption, against a background of child abductions in the affluent suburbs of Detroit.
In the waning days of the turbulent 1970s, in the wake of unsolved killings that have shocked Detroit, the lives of several residents are drawn together, with tragic consequences. There is Hannah, wife of a prominent local businessman, who has begun an affair with a darkly charismatic stranger whose identity remains elusive; Mikey, a canny street hustler who finds himself on an unexpected mission to rectify injustice; and the serial killer known as Babysitter, an enigmatic and terrifying figure at the periphery of elite Detroit. As Babysitter continues his rampage of killings, these individuals intersect with one another in startling and unexpected ways. Suspenseful, brilliantly orchestrated and engrossing, Babysitter is a starkly narrated exploration of the riskiness of pursuing alternate lives, calling into question how far we are willing to go to protect those whom we cherish most. In its scathing indictment of corrupt politics, unexamined racism, and the enabling of sexual predation in America, Babysitter is a thrilling work of contemporary fiction.
Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America's most acclaimed writers, the award-winning, best-selling author of Blonde
A brilliant young philosophy student bent on seducing her famous philosopher-mentor finds herself outmaneuvered; diabolically clever high school girls wreak a particularly apt sort of vengeance on sexual predators in their community; a woman stalked by a would-be killer may be confiding in the wrong former lover; a young woman is morbidly obsessed by her unfamiliar new role as «mother.» In the collection's longest story, a much-praised cutting-edge writer cruelly experiments with «drafts» of his own suicide.
In these powerfully wrought stories that hold a mirror up to our time, Joyce Carol Oates has created a world of erotic obsession, thwarted idealism, and ever-shifting identities. Provocative and stunning, Zero-Sum reinforces Oates's standing as a literary treasure and an artist of the mysterious interior life.
''Simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious and creative writer going'' GILLIAN FLYNN
''Delightfully disturbing''
iNEWS
''A blood-soaked, gothic nightmare''
FINANCIAL TIMES
From one of our most accomplished storytellers, an extraordinary and arresting novel about a women''s asylum in the nineteenth century, and a terrifying doctor who wants to change the world.
In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr. Silas Weir, ''Father of Gyno-Psychiatry,'' as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics, where he reigns. There, he is allowed to continue his practice, unchecked for decades, making a name for himself by focusing on women who have been neglected by the state-women he subjects to the most grotesque modes of experimentation. As he begins to establish himself as a pioneer of nineteenth-century surgery, Weir''s ambition is fueled by his obsessive fascination with a young Irish indentured servant named Brigit, who becomes not only Weir''s primary experimental subject, but also the agent of his destruction.
Narrated by Silas Weir''s eldest son, who has repudiated his father''s brutal legacy, Butcher is a unique blend of fiction and fact, a nightmare voyage through the darkest regions of the American psyche conjoined, in its startling conclusion, with unexpected romance. Once again, Joyce Carol Oates has written a spellbinding novel confirming her position as one of our celebrated American visionaries of the imagination.
''America''s preeminent fiction writer'' New Yorker Michaela and her husband have moved to the starkly beautiful but uncanny landscape of New Mexico, to take residency at a distinguished academic institute. But then Gerard is stricken with a mysterious illness, initially misdiagnosed, and soon their life begins to resemble a nightmare. At thirty-seven, Michaela faces the terrifying prospect of widowhood - and the loss of Gerard, whose identity has greatly shaped her own.
In vividly depicted scenes of escalating suspense, Michaela cares desperately for Gerard in his final days, and then careens through the chaos of the days after he is gone. Her love for her husband, however fierce and selfless, has not been enough to save him and his death is beyond her comprehension. A love that refuses to be surrendered at death - is this the blessing of a unique married love, or a curse that must be exorcized?
Breathe is an exploration of haunting, a horror story about the raw madness of grief, and an intense, heart-wrenching love story that grapples with the philosophical questions most fundamental to our existence.
The bonds of family are tested in the wake of a profound tragedy, providing a look at the darker side of our society The bonds of family are tested in the wake of a profound tragedy, providing a look at the darker side of our society Night Sleep Death The Stars is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: when a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all.
Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates''s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author''s bestselling We Were the Mulvaneys .
An ingenious dystopian novel of one young woman''s resistance against the constraints of an oppressive society When a recklessly idealistic girl in a dystopian future society dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled world, she is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America - ''Wainscotia, Wisconsin'' - that existed eighty years before. Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town, she is set upon a course of ''rehabilitation'' - but she falls in love with a fellow exile and starts to question the constraints of her new existence, with results that are both devastating and liberating. Arresting and visionary, Hazards of Time Travel is an exquisitely wrought love story, a novel of harrowing discovery - and an oblique but powerful response to our current political climate.
From bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates, a taut and fascinating novel that examines the mysteries of human memory and personality In 1965, a young research scientist named Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes, the subject of her study, a handsome amnesiac who cannot remember anything beyond the last seventy seconds. Over the course of thirty years, the two embark on mirroring journeys of self-discovery. Margot, enthralled by her charming, mysterious, and deeply lonely patient, as well as her officious supervisor, attempts to unlock Eli''s shuttered memories of a childhood trauma without losing her own sense of identity in the process. And Eli, haunted by memories of an unknown girl''s body underneath the surface of a lake, pushes to finally know himself once again, despite potentially devastating consequences. As Margot and Eli meet over and over again, Joyce Carol Oates'' tightly written, nearly clinical prose propels the lives of these two characters forwards, both suspended in a dream-like, shadowy present, and seemingly balanced on the thinnest, sharpest of lines between past and future. Made vivid by Oates'' eye for detail and searing insight into the human psyche, The Man Without a Shadow is an eerie, ambitious, and structurally complex novel, as poignant as it is thrilling.
A brilliant and thought-provoking novel about family, loyalty and betrayal Once I''d been Daddy''s favourite. Before something terrible happened. Violet Rue is the baby of the seven Kerrigan children and adores her big brothers. What''s more, she knows that a family protects its own. To go outside the family - to betray the family - is unforgiveable. So when she overhears a conversation not meant for her ears and discovers that her brothers have committed a heinous crime, she is torn between her loyalty to her family and her sense of justice. The decision she takes will change her life for ever. Exploring racism, misogyny, community, family, loyalty, sexuality and identity, this is a dark story with a tense and propulsive atmosphere - Joyce Carol Oates at her very best.
Presents a controversial depiction of race in America by the author of "We Were the Mulvaneys", "Blonde" and "The Falls". Fifteen years after the mysterious death of Minette Swift, a 19-year-old black girl, a scholarship student in an exclusive liberal arts college, her former roommate Genna begins an unofficial enquiry into the traumatic event.
A personal novel about mothers and daughters. It tells the story of a woman coming to terms with the death of her mother, and uncovering all the secrets stowed away over the years. When her mother fails to return her phone calls, Nikki Eaton calls in to check up on her. She finds the house turned upside-down, and her mother lying dead, murdered.
The author offers an intimate memoir about the unexpected death of her husband of forty-six years from a hospital-acquired infection and its wrenching, surprising aftermath.
