‘Shot through with menace and subtlety…Mudwoman is a genuinely unsettling book in which Oates pays her reader the compliment of never letting them settle or even being entirely sure about what they have just read. For a young novelist, this kind of risk-taking would be admirable; for a 73-year-old with more than 50 novels to her name, it is extraordinary’ Financial Times ‘A chilling, beautifully written ghost story about the power of the past’ The Times ‘Oates is a dangerous writer in the best sense of the word, one who takes risks almost obsessively with energy and relish… As if her aim were not to satisfy or entertain – though she always does both – but to do the vandalistic prose equivalent of spray-painting or setting fire to bins in public parks.’ New York Times ‘We think of Oates, like Poe, as a master of terror, but her real mastery is in almost never depicting a strong emotion in isolation… Oates [is]… a fearless experimenter forcing the reader ahead of her at knifepoint’ Los Angeles Times ‘This is an intriguing and bold novel about the flip side of success, and the sexual and psychological violence on the female psyche’ Emma Hagestadt, Independent

• Joyce Carol Oates is the award-winning and bestselling author of numerous novels including ‘We Were the Mulvaneys’. • Joyce Carol Oates has been heralded as one of the world’s greatest contemporary writers. Competition: Joyce Carol Oates;