Sourland - Paperback

"Oates is a fearless writer."

--Los Angeles Times

"Oates is a master of the dark tale--stories of the hunted and the hunter, of violence, trauma, and deep psychic wounds."

--Booklist (starred review)

Sourland is a gripping, haunting, and intensely moving collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates, one of America's preeminent authors. Unforgettable tales that re-imagine the meaning of loss--often through violent means--Sourland is yet another extraordinary read from the literary icon who has previously brought us The Gravedigger's Daughter, Blonde, We Were the Mulvaneys, and numerous other classic works of contemporary fiction.

Front Jacket

Joyce Carol Oates is not only one of our most important novelists and literary critics, she is also an unparalleled master of the short story. Sourland--sixteen previously uncollected stories that explore the power of violence, loss, and grief to shape the psyche as well as the soul--shows us an author working at the height of her powers.

With lapidary precision and an unflinching eye, Oates maps the surprising contours of "ordinary" life, from a desperate man who dons a jack-o'-lantern head as a prelude to a most curious sort of courtship to a beguiling young woman librarian whose amputee state attracts a married man and father; from a girl hopelessly in love with her renegade, incarcerated cousin to the concluding title story of an unexpectedly redemptive love rooted in radical aloneness and isolation. Each story in Sourland resonates beautifully with Oates's trademark fascination for the unpredictable amid the prosaic--the commingling of sexual love and violence, the tumult of family life--and shines with her predilection for dark humor and her gift for voice.

Back Jacket

Joyce Carol Oates is not only one of our most important novelists and literary critics, she is also an unparalleled master of the short story. Sourland--sixteen previously uncollected stories that explore the power of violence, loss, and grief to shape the psyche as well as the soul--shows us an author working at the height of her powers.

With lapidary precision and an unflinching eye, Oates maps the surprising contours of "ordinary" life, from a desperate man who dons a jack-o'-lantern head as a prelude to a most curious sort of courtship to a beguiling young woman librarian whose amputee state attracts a married man and father; from a girl hopelessly in love with her renegade, incarcerated cousin to the concluding title story of an unexpectedly redemptive love rooted in radical aloneness and isolation. Each story in Sourland resonates beautifully with Oates's trademark fascination for the unpredictable amid the prosaic--the commingling of sexual love and violence, the tumult of family life--and shines with her predilection for dark humor and her gift for voice.