From Joyce Carol Oates, literary icon and author of BLONDE, now a major motion picture, come four psychologically daring and chillingly suspenseful stories where women face threats both past and present.A Pennsylvania academic unearths a terrifying trauma from her past after inheriting a house in Cardiff, Maine from a stranger. A lonely pubescent girl befriends a feral cat that protects her from the increasingly aggressive men that surround her.A brilliant but shy college sophomore realizes she is pregnant and, distraught, allows a distinguished visiting professor to take her under his wing. And a widower remarries, but finds his young bride haunted by his dead wife's voice dancing in the wind.'A stylish, suspenseful quartet of novellas tinged with the supernatural.' Daily MailReviews for Joyce Carol Oates:'A writer of extraordinary strengths.' Guardian 'Oates chillingly depicts the darkness lurking within the everyday.' Sunday Express 'Both haunting and sublime.' Literary Review 'Splendidly chilling.' Financial Times 'Visceral, psychologically involving, and socially astute.' Booklist