The fourth wife of a much older man thinks she is happy until the first wife comes to stay... A lonely outsider meets a dazzling kindred spirit, but first love soon turns sour... A drugged-up frat boy decides to murder his parents for their money, but is floored by the power of his mother's love... A fragile woman revisits her childhood abuse in order to satisfy a curious lover. Winner of the National Book Award, Joyce Carol Oates is the queen of the gothic undertow.