In the aftermath of a car accident that kills her boyfriend and throws her carefully planned future into complete upheaval, high school senior Wren retreats to the deep woods of Maine to live with the artist father she barely knows and meets a boy who threatens to pull her from her safe, hard-won exile.

From the legendary literary master, winner of the National Book Award and New York Times bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates, a collection of thirteen mesmerizing stories that maps the eerie darkness within us all. Insightful, disturbing, imaginative, and breathtaking in their lyrical precision, the stories in Lovely, Dark, Deep display Joyce Carol Oates’s magnificent ability to make visceral the terror, hurt, and uncertainty that lurks at the edges of ordinary lives. In “Mastiff,” a woman and a man are joined in an erotic bond forged out of terror and gratitude. “Sex with Camel” explores how a sixteen-year-old boy realizes the depth of his love for his grandmother—and how vulnerable those feelings make him. Fearful that that her husband is “disappearing” from their life, a woman becomes obsessed with keeping him in her sight in “The Disappearing.” “A Book of Martyrs” reveals how the end of a pregnancy brings with it the end of a relationship. And in the title story, the elderly Robert Frost is visited by an interviewer, an unsettling young woman, who seems to know a good deal more about his life than she should. A piercing and evocative collection, Lovely, Dark, Deep reveals an artist at the height of her creative power.

“In this moving, empowering book,” a high school senior navigates new love after she is diagnosed with photosensitivity, an illness that changes her life (Booklist). When Viola Li returns from a trip, she develops a sudden and extreme case of photosensitivity—an inexplicable allergy to sunlight. Thanks to her crisis-manager parents, she doesn’t just have to wear layers of clothes and spaceship-sized hat. She has to avoid all hint of light. Say goodbye to windows and running outdoors. Even her phone becomes a threat. Viola is determined to maintain a normal life, particularly after she meets Josh. He’s a funny, talented Thor look-alike with his own mysterious grief. But their romance makes her take more risks, and when a rebellion against her parents backfires dangerously, she must find her way to a life—and love—as deep and lovely as her dreams. “A luminous read that will rekindle your faith in the indomitable human spirit.” —Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook “An inspiring, romantic novel full of redemption and hope.” —Mitali Perkins, author of You Bring the Distant Near “Fresh, often funny . . . Readers won’t be able to help but root for Viola in this moving, empowering book about a teen recalculating her well-laid plans, all in a vivid voice.” —Booklist, starred review “Chen provides glimmers of hope as she reveals Viola’s battle to reclaim a form of normalcy.” —Publishers Weekly “A strong exploration of resilience in the face of life unpredictable.” —Kirkus Reviews

A heart-pounding romantic thriller that pits a quick-witted scientist and a scarred former combat diver against a ruthless billionaire treasure hunter with ties to the White House.

A city councilman is dead of an apparent suicide. Ex-cop Stefan Kopriva finds himself drawn into the case, serving an unlikely client. Once involved, he discovers that things are not as they seem.Kopriva is quickly embroiled in dirty city politics. Along the way, he encounters pimps, prostitutes, gangsters, contractors, and the police as he tries to get to the bottom of what happened, and why. No one wants this outcome, so Kopriva must risk his own freedom and his very life to find the answers, no matter how deep the corruption goes.Lovely, Dark, and Deep is the second Stefan Kopriva mystery.