New York Times bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates
returns with an incendiary novel that illuminates the tragic
impact of sexual violence, racism, brutality, and power on
innocent lives and probes the persistence of stereotypes,
the nature of revenge, the complexities of truth, and our
insatiable hunger for sensationalism.
When a
fourteen-year-old girl is the alleged victim of a terrible
act of racial violence, the incident shocks and galvanizes
her community, exacerbating the racial tension that has been
simmering in this New Jersey town for decades. In this
magisterial work of fiction, Joyce Carol Oates explores the
uneasy fault lines in a racially troubled society. In such a
tense, charged atmosphere, Oates reveals that there must
always be a sacrifice—of innocence, truth, trust, and,
ultimately, of lives. Unfolding in a succession of
multiracial voices, in a community transfixed by this
alleged crime and the spectacle unfolding around it, this
profound novel exposes what—and who—the “sacrifice” actually
is, and what consequences these kind of events hold for us
all.
Working at the height of her powers, Oates offers
a sympathetic portrait of the young girl and her mother, and
challenges our expectations and beliefs about our society,
our biases, and ourselves. As the chorus of its voices—from
the police to the media to the victim and her family—reaches
a crescendo, The Sacrifice offers a shocking new
understanding of power and oppression, innocence and guilt,
truth and sensationalism, justice and retribution.
A
chilling exploration of complex social, political, and moral
themes—the enduring trauma of the past, modern racial and
class tensions, the power of secrets, and the primal
decisions we all make to protect those we love—The
Sacrifice is a major work of fiction from one of our
most revered literary masters.
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