Fox
Published on 21. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
672 pages
978-0-00-876560-6 (ISBN)
Description
'Chilling'
FINANCIAL TIMES
'Tom Ripley, eat your heart out'
NPR
'Eerie, shocking, provoking' GILLIAN FLYNN
A chilling, captivating novel about the dark secrets that surface after the shocking disappearance of a charming, mercurial teacher at an elite boarding school.
Who is Francis Fox?
A charismatic, young English teacher joins an elite New Jersey boarding school. Francis Fox quickly beguiles many of his students, their parents and his colleagues, while leaving others in the small town wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic.
When Fox disappears and parts of an unidentified body are discovered in nearby woods, the community begins to ask disturbing questions about the charming, mercurial teacher, and who he might really be.
A hypnotic tale of crime, complicity and revenge, Fox is an unsettling portrait of a cunning predator, which illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche.
'Breathless and febrile ... an utterly mesmeric account of how one man's crimes can affect an entire community'
GUARDIAN
'Impressive and unsettling'
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
'Rich in suspense, diabolical secrets and psychological insight'
ECONOMIST
'Mesmerising ... another masterclass from one of America's greatest writers' MICHAEL CONNELLY, author of The Lincoln Lawyer
FINANCIAL TIMES
'Tom Ripley, eat your heart out'
NPR
'Eerie, shocking, provoking' GILLIAN FLYNN
A chilling, captivating novel about the dark secrets that surface after the shocking disappearance of a charming, mercurial teacher at an elite boarding school.
Who is Francis Fox?
A charismatic, young English teacher joins an elite New Jersey boarding school. Francis Fox quickly beguiles many of his students, their parents and his colleagues, while leaving others in the small town wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic.
When Fox disappears and parts of an unidentified body are discovered in nearby woods, the community begins to ask disturbing questions about the charming, mercurial teacher, and who he might really be.
A hypnotic tale of crime, complicity and revenge, Fox is an unsettling portrait of a cunning predator, which illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche.
'Breathless and febrile ... an utterly mesmeric account of how one man's crimes can affect an entire community'
GUARDIAN
'Impressive and unsettling'
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
'Rich in suspense, diabolical secrets and psychological insight'
ECONOMIST
'Mesmerising ... another masterclass from one of America's greatest writers' MICHAEL CONNELLY, author of The Lincoln Lawyer
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Fox: 'Breathless and febrile, this is an utterly mesmeric account of how one man's crimes can affect an entire community' Guardian 'Impressive and unsettling ... remarkably engrossing' New York Times Book Review 'This sprawling yet immersive novel is rich in suspense, diabolical secrets and psychological insight' Economist 'A chilling portrait of manipulation and menace within the cloistered world of an elite boarding school' Financial Times 'A prolonged dive into the murkiest of waters' TLS 'The master of domestic thrillers ... Oates actively invites comparison with Nabokov's Lolita ... Fox is a tome that does more than just fill in Lolita's gaps, it is engrossing even as it horrifies and reminds us that we cannot nor should not look away' Big Issue 'Gripping, disgusting and darkly comic ... Oates flips the genre on its head' The Standard 'A classic psychological suspense ... feels ripped from the headlines' People 'Fox's story is inescapably abhorrent yet enthralling...Oates understands, as always, how to keep us on the hook' Los Angeles Times 'Absolutely chilling ... this is Oates at her most disturbing and masterful' Seattle Times 'Reading Fox is like being spellbound by a hypnotist who may not wish you well, who leads you, with a deceptively gentle hand, toward that dark forest you fear ... Eerie, shocking, provoking, and beautifully written, Fox is yet further proof that Oates is one of the greatest writers among us today' Gillian Flynn, author of Sharp Objects 'I can't remember the last time I read something so (darkly, disconcertingly) addictive that yet bears so much realism and nuance and depth. Oates is a genius' Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers 'What a gift this book is! ... mesmerizing front to back - another masterclass from one of America's greatest writers' Michael Connelly, author of The Lincoln LawyerMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 43 mm
Weight
438 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-876560-6 (9780008765606)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of a National Humanities Medal awarded by President Barack Obama, the National Book Critics Circle's Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, the National Book Award in Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina, the Cino Del Duca World Prize, and is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the bestsellers Blonde and We Were the Mulvaneys. She is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Distinguished Professor of the Humanities Emerita at Princeton University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2024, she won the Raymond Chandler Award, a lifetime achievement honor given to "a master of the thriller and noir literary genre."