Joyce Carol Oates is a National Book Award winner in America. Superb advance praise for this book: 'A cunning fusion of gothic romance and psychological horror story, and one of Oates' best recent books' Kirkus 'Deliciously gothic... Oates' control of this smart, steely tale of the baser side of human nature is absolute, as are its dark and scintillating pleasures' Booklist 'Riveting - suspenseful and satisfying to the end, with Oates displaying her amazing flair for complex - and slightly bizarre - characters' Library Journal

Revered in the States, where she has won many awards - and Oprah's approval - Oates has yet to make a real impact in Britain, despite a sequence of much-praised novels, including Blonde, her take on Monroe, and Black Water, which took its cue from Kennedy and Chappaquiddick. This one is set on an American campus in the mid-Seventies, in the long shadow of Vietnam. Gillian Brauer is in thrall to the charismatic and libertarian Professor Andrew Harrow - Andr to favoured students. His wife, Dorcas, is a sculptress whose works - exhibited under the motto 'we are beasts and this is our consolation' - might be described as primitive. Gillian is soon drawn, helpless, into their private world, when the real meaning of the motto becomes all too clear. One for readers of psychological suspense.

Joyce Carol Oates, one of America's most honoured writers, is the author of the New York Times bestseller and Oprah Book Club selection WE WERE THE MULVANEYS, such critically praised novels as BLONDE, BROKE HEART BLUES, BLACK WATER, and MIDDLE AGE. She has won the National Book Award for THEM, as well as the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.