The Accursed

Joyce Carol Oates is a novelist, critic, playwright, poet and author of short stories and one of America's most respected literary figures. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Princeton University and a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction.

'Oates has written what may be the world's postmodern Gothic novel...It's dense, challenging, problematic, horrifying, funny, prolix and full of crazy people. You should read it. I wish I could tell you more...feverishly entertaining' Stephen King, New York Times Book Review 'A belated candidate for the Great Oates Novel ... a big, mad, colourful romp, respectful of the literary traditions in which it participates, leavened with a piquant humour. It may not be the definitive work to crown the singularly fascinating Oates oeuvre but, for the uninitiated, it is a great place to begin' Financial Times, David Evans 'Enthralling ... it is both a commentary on the art of Gothic fiction, and a marvellously sustained piece of Gothic writing itself. We await the next novel with renewed excitement. We will not have to wait long' Stephen Abell, Sunday Telegraph 'Oates is not a genre writer, but like most writers sincerely engaged in the job of telling stories, she isn't afraid of genre motifs, and "The Accursed" is packed to the gills with them: ghouls, succubi, vampires, body snatchers, a plague of snakes consorting with schoolgirls, child-devouring beasts in the night...a large number of the narrative riffs are powerful and absorbing...it's clear throughout these six hundred-plus pages that, as always, Oates intimately knows her characters and the worlds they inhabit' Literary Review 'A thrilling tale in the best gothic tradition, a lesson in master craftsmanship...it has vampires, demons, angels, murder, lynching, beatings, rape, sex, parallel worlds, Antarctic voyages, socialism, sexism, racism, paranoia, gossip, spiritualism, and escalating insanity...The story sprawls, reaches, demands, tears, and shrieks in homage to the traditional gothic, yet with fresh, surprising twists and turns... Hang on for the ride' Publishers Weekly

'Oates has written what may be the world's first postmodern Gothic novel... dense, challenging, problematic, horrifying, funny, prolix and full of crazy people. You should read it ...feverishly entertaining' Stephen King, New York Times Book Review

'A belated candidate for the Great Oates Novel ... a big, mad, colourful romp, respectful of the literary traditions in which it participates, leavened with a piquant humour. It may not be the definitive work to crown the singularly fascinating Oates oeuvre but, for the uninitiated, it is a great place to begin' David Evans, Financial Times

'Enthralling ... it is both a commentary on the art of Gothic fiction, and a marvellously sustained piece of Gothic writing itself. We await the next novel with renewed excitement' Stephen Abell, Sunday Telegraph

'Oates is not a genre writer, but like most writers sincerely engaged in the job of telling stories, she isn't afraid of genre motifs, and 'The Accursed' is packed to the gills with them ...a large number of the narrative riffs are powerful and absorbing...it's clear throughout these six hundred-plus pages that, as always, Oates intimately knows her characters and the worlds they inhabit' Literary Review

'This is Postmodern Gothic at its most supreme, a riotous yet scholarly ride through turn-of-the-20th century Princeton ... Oates is having great baroque fun here, but the scholarly range of her tale is astonishing as she again makes the combination of research and risk-taking look natural and easy' Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday

'A thrilling tale in the best gothic tradition, a lesson in master craftsmanship...The story sprawls, reaches, demands, tears, and shrieks in homage to the traditional gothic, yet with fresh, surprising twists and turns... Hang on for the ride' Publishers Weekly

'Gothic, macabre epic' Observer