A Book of American Martyrs: A Novel [B2320]

2017 HCDJ in nice clean condition. A powerfully resonant and provocative novel from American master and New York Times bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates. In this striking, enormously affecting novel, Joyce Carol Oates tells the story of two very different and yet intimately linked American families. Luther Dunphy is an ardent Evangelical who envisions himself as acting out God's will when he assassinates an abortion provider in his small Ohio town while Augustus Voorhees, the idealistic but self-regarding doctor who is killed, leaves behind a wife and children scarred and embittered by grief. In her moving, insightful portrait, Joyce Carol Oates fully inhabits the perspectives of two interwoven families whose destinies are defined by their warring convictions and squarely-but with great empathy-confronts an intractable, abiding rift in American society.

A Book of American Martyrs is a stunning, timely depiction of an issue hotly debated on a national stage but which makes itself felt most lastingly in communities torn apart by violence and hatred. "The most relevant book of Oates's half-century-long career, a powerful reminder that fiction can be as timely as this morning's tweets but infinitely more illuminating." --Washington Post.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "An excellent book. I devoured this huge 700-page saga in 4 sittings over 4 days. A very harsh yet poignant novel of Fascism and Fanaticism and the ways that it can break up families and damage people."; "Thought provoking, Intense, Real, Gut wrenching, Satisfying, & Heartbreaking literary fiction! My God! Joyce Carol Oates is a genius. She managed to write a novel about a topic that would cause a normal person to lean more to one side. She did not! She didn't cut corners, or sugar coat this issue. And that ending was simply perfect. 'Tears ";

"This book absolutely gutted me, and the ending left me with chills that lingered long after I finished. This novel explores a distinctly American tragedy, but somehow, beneath all the grief and devastation, it also manages to convey a message of hope. What stayed with me most, though, was just how deeply human this book is. Regardless of where you fall on the pro-choice/pro-life spectrum, the heart of this story is not about villains and heroes. Instead, you're forced to confront the humanity, pain, fear, and convictions on both sides-and, perhaps most importantly, feel for the people you might otherwise see as the 'other'. Complicated, heartbreaking, unsettling, a masterpiece."; ""