The Barrens

In this compelling new novel from one of the most powerful and original voices in contemporary American literature, Joyce Carol Oates (writing as Rosamond Smith) turns her remarkable skills to the complex story of a serial killer and the people his crimes touch and transform. Matt McBride remembers the first victim. He was barely out of junior high when the mutilated body of the popular, pretty teenager was uncovered in the desolate New Jersey Pine Barrens and the horror haunts his memory still. Although Matt had hardly known the girl, he has long felt guilty at not having been able somehow to prevent the atrocity. Now another attractive young woman has disappeared. Matt knew this victim, too. Just possibly he knew her more intimately than he can admit. By degrees Matt becomes obsessed with a guilt he can neither comprehend nor allay. The fabric of his seemingly happy marriage begins to unravel. His increasingly erratic behaviour heightens police suspicions. It also draws official attention away from an artist - a man of tortured memory - to a shattering confrontation.