The Gravedigger's Daughter: A Novel - Hardcover

Oates, Joyce Carol

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061236829 ISBN 13: 9780061236822

Publisher: Ecco Pr, 2007

Synopsis

The daughter of a German high school teacher who was forced to work as a gravedigger after immigrating to upstate New York, Rebecca begins a life-changing pilgrimage throughout America in the wake of a prejudice-motivated tragedy. 100,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

‘Every single Oates novel I’ve read has added to my conviction that she is a genius.’ Julie Myerson, Independent on Sunday

‘One of the female frontrunners for the title of Great American Novelist.' Maggie Gee, Sunday Times

'A writer of extraordinary strengths...she has dealt consistently with what is probably the great American theme – the quest for the creation of self...Her great subject, naturally, is love.' Ian Sansom, Guardian

'The Gravedigger’s Daughter is a rather nightmarish celebration of the American dream, of the transformative powers of ambition, talent and love. Its style is a fitting combination of the harsh and lyrical, and has a powerful, seemingly unconscious fluency.' Telegraph

‘Unlike anything else she has ever written...A very strong and readable novel; the rivalry between the two sisters is especially well observed.’ Edmund White, Books of the Year, Times Literary Supplement

'Her prose is peerless and her ability to make you think as she re-invents genres is unique. Few writers move so effortlessly from the gothic tale to the psychological thriller to the epic family saga to the lyrical novella. Even fewer authors can so compellingly and entertainingly tell a story.' Jackie McGlone, Scotland on Sunday

'Novelists such as John Updike, Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer slug it out for the title of the Great American Novelist. But maybe they're wrong. Maybe, just maybe, the Great American Novelist is a woman.' The Herald

'Oates's writing is frenetic and gripping, and Rebecca's quest to find a place for herself raises important questions about identity and power.' Psychologies Magazine

'Readers...will be rewarded by a richly nuanced portrait of a woman who survives more than her share of abuse and loss. Few writers write more convincingly about male violence than Oates, and her depiction of its effects on her heroine are memorable.' The Sunday Times

'Exhilarating.' Daily Mail

'The excellent Joyce Carol Oates conjures an America that few of us could know...if this mighty novel can be summarised it would be as the story of a woman's self empowerment from destitute child to proud survivor in a harsh, unsympathetic landscape. There is a Dickensian sweep to her great adventure, but the melodramatic and the sentimental, never far away in a tale so colourful, are held at bay by Oates' gritty realism.' Irish Independent

'Absolutely absorbing...gripping from the very first page.' The Works

About the Author:

Joyce Carol Oats is the Roger S. Berlind Distinquished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Pr
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0061236829
• ISBN 13: 9780061236822
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 582