Zero-Sum

Get in the xigxag app
Already purchased

Click to open directly in the xigxag app.

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book. Pre-order Buy Now £{{ price }} Send as a gift

Listen to a sample

What to expect

‘Oates’s imagination is as unique, dystopian and vivid as Lewis Carroll’s’ ROSE TREMAIN

'A master storyteller' THE TIMES

'Electric' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers.

A 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.

In 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, Zero-Sum reinforces Oates’s standing as a literary treasure and an artist of the mysterious interior life.

‘Alluringly dark and spiky’ NEW STATESMAN

Zero-Sum is brilliant – bloodied, breathless, weird’ A. K. BLAKEMORE

‘Dark, unsettling stories … There’s a disquieting violence simmering … a shrill alarm of disquiet’ DAILY MAIL

‘Oates is an inspired writer, and a formidable psychologist’ INDEPENDENT

Critics Review

Zero-Sum is brilliant – bloodied, breathless, weird’ A. K. Blakemore, author of The Manningtree Witches

‘A genuine, sharp chronicler of our times, with a remarkable ability to sway from keen modernity to complete Gothic’ Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

‘A fierce chronicler of survival against the odds’ Ali Smith, author of Companion Piece

‘Oates’s imagination is as unique, dystopian and vivid as Lewis Carroll’s’ Rose Tremain, author of Lily

‘A writer of extraordinary strengthsGuardian

‘American’s pre-eminent fiction writer’ New Yorker

Electric … A vein of feminist horror runs through Zero-Sum … [Zero-Sum’s] zero-sum games [advance] to an existential battle between humanity and the destructive forces it has unleashed’ The New York Times Book Review

‘Oates presses the zero-sum principle to extremes … Reading these tales is a startling and disturbing adventure. Having finished one variation on the theme, the reader never knows what form the next will take’ TLS

‘An electric story collection from a lit icon … Violence simmers and sometimes boils over’ Vanity Fair

‘Taut, nervy, and often fantastically unsettling’ Esquire

A prolific master of the short form’ Kirkus

About xigxag

Enjoy the best audiobooks on xigxag, an innovative, user-friendly audiobook platform that makes it easy to find, purchase, and enjoy your favorite books in audio format. xigxag’s flexible pricing model offers bestselling audiobooks for less – affordable prices and the best audiobook deals with no subscription required.  Give the perfect gift with our audiobook gift cards and in-app audiobook gifting options.

 

xigxag’s commitment to sustainability and ethical practices ensures a guilt-free listening experience from an exceptional digital book platform – an exciting alternative to big tech.  Enjoy audiobooks from the only B Corp certified UK audiobook service and a leader in audiobook innovation.

 

Search effortlessly, read honest audiobook reviews evaluating both the book and the narration, and discover hidden gems.  Download or stream top audiobook titles anytime, anywhere and get the best possible listening experience on the UK’s best independent audiobook app.  Experience the future of audiobooks today.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.