{"product_id":"9780008609771_zero-sum","title":"Zero Sum","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘Oates’s imagination is as unique, dystopian and vivid as Lewis Carroll’s’\u003c\/strong\u003e ROSE TREMAIN\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'A master storyteller' \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eTHE TIMES\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Electric' \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eZero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA 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 “mother.” In the collection’s longest story, a much-praised cutting-edge writer cruelly experiments with “drafts” of his own suicide.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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, \u003cem\u003eZero-Sum\u003c\/em\u003e reinforces Oates’s standing as a literary treasure and an artist of the mysterious interior life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘Alluringly dark and spiky’ \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNEW STATESMAN\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eZero-Sum\u003c\/em\u003e is brilliant – bloodied, breathless, weird’\u003c\/strong\u003e A. K. BLAKEMORE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘Dark, unsettling stories … There’s a disquieting violence simmering … a shrill alarm of disquiet’ \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eDAILY MAIL\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘Oates is an inspired writer, and a formidable psychologist’ \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eINDEPENDENT\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Joyce Carol Oates","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46898326929557,"sku":"9780008609771","price":32.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780008609771.jpg?v=1776887878","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780008609771_zero-sum","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}