January 2010 Good Housekeeping selection.
The interplay between Marcus Kidder and Katya Spivak is powered by dubious intention from the moment of their first encounter. He is a 68-year-old member of the established rich in refined Bayhead Harbor; she is 16, a holiday nanny with a South Jersey accent, an absent father who gambles and a mother who drinks. He wears cantaloupe-coloured leisure trousers and has silver hair sprouting from the top of his pressed shirts; she is fresh with youth and looking for adventure. But what price is she prepared to pay, and what exactly is in his mind as he encourages her to let him paint her portrait? Not as you think. Wondrously, Joyce Carol Oates spins the web.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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Fifteen-year-old Katya Spivak is out for a walk on the gracious streets of Bayhead Harbor, New Jersey, with her two summer babysitting charges when she is approached by silver-haired, elegant Marcus Kidder. At first his interest in her seems harmless, even pleasant; like his name, a sort of gentle joke. His beautiful home, the children's books that he has written, his classical music, the fine art in his study, his lavish gifts to her: Mr. Kidder's life couldn't be more different from Katya's drab working class existence back home - or more enticing. But by degrees, almost imperceptibly, something changes, and posing for Mr Kidder's new painting isn't the light-hearted endeavour it once was. What does he really want from her? And how far will he go to get it? This spare, chilling novel shows Joyce Carol Oates at the height of her powers as a literary storyteller.
A Fair Maiden: A Dark Novel of Suspense features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, General Fiction, Fiction
A Fair Maiden: A Dark Novel of Suspense is available in Hardback
A Fair Maiden: A Dark Novel of Suspense was written by Joyce Carol Oates and published by Quercus Publishing Plc
