Zero-Sum

âOatesâs imagination is as unique, dystopian and vivid as Lewis Carrollâsâ ROSE TREMAIN''A master storyteller'' THE TIMES''Electric'' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWZero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of Americaâs most acclaimed writers.A brilliant young philosophy student bent on seducing her famous philosopher-mentor finds herself outmaneuvered; diabolically clever high school girls wreak a particularly apt sort of vengeance on sexual predators in their community; a woman stalked by a would-be killer may be confiding in the wrong former lover; a young woman is morbidly obsessed by her unfamiliar new role as âmother.â In the collectionâs longest story, a much-praised cutting-edge writer cruelly experiments with âdraftsâ of his own suicide.In these powerfully wrought stories that hold a mirror up to our time, Joyce Carol Oates has created a world of erotic obsession, thwarted idealism, and ever-shifting identities. Provocative and stunning, Zero-Sum reinforces Oatesâs standing as a literary treasure and an artist of the mysterious interior life.âAlluringly dark and spikyâ NEW STATESMANâZero-Sum is brilliant â" bloodied, breathless, weirdâ A. K. BLAKEMOREâDark, unsettling stories ⦠Thereâs a disquieting violence simmering ⦠a shrill alarm of disquietâ DAILY MAILâOates is an inspired writer, and a formidable psychologistâ INDEPENDENT