Butcher: The vivid new thriller from the multi-award winning Joyce Carol Oates – ‘A master storyteller’, The Times

‘Simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious and creative writer going’ GILLIAN FLYNN 'Gripping … Bravura storytelling' VOGUE 'A blood-soaked, gothic nightmare' FINANCIAL TIMES From one of our most accomplished storytellers, an extraordinary and arresting novel about a nineteenth-century women's asylum, and a terrifying doctor who wants to change the world. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Dr Silas Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics. There, his work focuses on women who have been neglected by the state – women he subjects to grotesque modes of experimentation. Based on authentic historical documents, Butcher is a nightmare voyage through the darkest regions of the American psyche. 'A ghastly and harrowing page-turner' STEPHEN KING, via X 'A triumph of style and brio’ FINANCIAL TIMES 'Terrifying' FLAUNT 'Vividly and compellingly-drawn' iNEWS In Butcher, Joyce Carol Oates explores the horror of a nineteenth-century women's asylum through a gothic and psychological lens. The literary fiction piece is a haunting journey into the depths of human depravity, showcasing the author's ability to craft deeply unsettling stories. For fans of Bruce Mcallister (The Year's Best Science Fiction), Amor Towles (Table For Two), Stephen King (The Life of Chuck), Percival L. Everett (James), and Heidi Pitlor (The Best American Short Stories 2024). HarperCollins 2024 For fans of Stephen King (The Stand), Percival L. Everett (James), Barbara Kingsolver (Demon Copperhead), Hernan Diaz (Trust), and Elizabeth Strout (Tell Me Everything). HarperCollins 2024