Joyce Carol Oates was born in New York in 1938 and has published more than 100 books including novels, plays, short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. We are all bound to our families and it is a sort of fairytale nightmare if one might be disowned or rejected. In the novel, Violet speaks out about a crime – the racially motivated assault of a high-school student. Her father is very like my own father, Frederic Oates, who always had second jobs in order to support our family. • My Life As a Rat by Joyce Carol Oates is published by Fourth Estate (£16.99).

Source: The Guardian June 01, 2019 16:52 UTC