Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
Zero-Sum by Joyce Carol Oates
Add Zero-Sum to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf

Look Inside

Zero-Sum

Stories

Stories

Stories

Stories

By Joyce Carol Oates

By Joyce Carol Oates

By Joyce Carol Oates

By Joyce Carol Oates

By Joyce Carol Oates

By Joyce Carol Oates

By Joyce Carol Oates
Read by Olivia Rose Barresi, Amy Jensen, Max Meyers, Linda Jones, Karissa Vacker, Cassandra Campbell and Robert Fass

By Joyce Carol Oates
Read by Olivia Rose Barresi, Amy Jensen, Max Meyers, Linda Jones, Karissa Vacker, Cassandra Campbell and Robert Fass

Best Seller
Paperback $18.00

Sep 10, 2024 | ISBN 9780593469583

Hardcover $29.00

Jul 18, 2023 | ISBN 9780593535868

Ebook $4.99

Jul 18, 2023 | ISBN 9780593535875

Audiobook Download $20.00

Jul 18, 2023 | 586 Minutes

All Formats
+
    Zero-Sum by Joyce Carol Oates
    Paperback $18.00
    Sep 10, 2024 | ISBN 9780593469583

    Preorder from:

    See All Formats (3) +
    • $18.00

      Sep 10, 2024 | ISBN 9780593469583

      Preorder from:

    • $29.00

      Jul 18, 2023 | ISBN 9780593535868

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Jul 18, 2023 | ISBN 9780593535875

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Jul 18, 2023 | ISBN 9780593741634

      586 Minutes

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Audiobook Download:

    About Zero-Sum

    Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers, the award-winning, best-selling author of Blonde

    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.

    About Zero-Sum

    Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers, the award-winning, best-selling author of Blonde

    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.

    About Zero-Sum

    Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers, the award-winning, best-selling author of Blonde

    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.

    About Zero-Sum

    Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers, the award-winning, best-selling author of Blonde

    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.

    Cover image:  Zeno’s Arrow. 1964 by René Magritte © 2022 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Banque d’Images, ADAGP / Art Resource, NY

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Listen to a sample from Zero-Sum

    Also by Joyce Carol Oates

    Expensive People
    them
    A Garden of Earthly Delights
    See all books by Joyce Carol Oates

    Also by Joyce Carol Oates

    Expensive People
    them
    A Garden of Earthly Delights
    See all books by Joyce Carol Oates

    Also by Joyce Carol Oates

    Expensive People
    them
    A Garden of Earthly Delights
    See all books by Joyce Carol Oates

    Also by Joyce Carol Oates

    Expensive People
    them
    A Garden of Earthly Delights
    See all books by Joyce Carol Oates

    About Joyce Carol Oates

    JOYCE CAROL OATES is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the Prix Femina, and the Cino Del Duca World Prize…. More about Joyce Carol Oates

    About Joyce Carol Oates

    JOYCE CAROL OATES is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the Prix Femina, and the Cino Del Duca World Prize…. More about Joyce Carol Oates

    About Joyce Carol Oates

    JOYCE CAROL OATES is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the Prix Femina, and the Cino Del Duca World Prize…. More about Joyce Carol Oates

    About Joyce Carol Oates

    JOYCE CAROL OATES is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the Prix Femina, and the Cino Del Duca World Prize…. More about Joyce Carol Oates

    Product Details

    Category: Short Stories | Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $18.00
    Published by Vintage
    Sep 10, 2024 | 272 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780593469583

    Category: Short Stories | Literary Fiction

    Hardcover | $29.00
    Published by Knopf
    Jul 18, 2023 | 272 Pages | 6-1/4 x 9-1/4 | ISBN 9780593535868

    Category: Short Stories | Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $4.99
    Published by Vintage
    Jul 18, 2023 | 272 Pages | ISBN 9780593535875

    Category: Short Stories | Literary Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $20.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Jul 18, 2023 | 586 Minutes | ISBN 9780593741634

    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Praise

    “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.”
    —Kate Folk, The New York Times Book Review

    “A bewitching collection of speculative stories about women dealing with society and violence . . . [The stories in Zero-Sum contain] quintessential Oates intrigue and mystery.”
    —Sophia June, Nylon

    “An electric story collection from a lit icon . . .  Violence simmers and sometimes boils over.”
    —Keziah Weir, Vanity Fair

     “Powerfully wrought . . . Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in this collection of arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writer . . . Joyce Carol Oates has created a world of erotic obsession, thwarted idealism and ever-shifting identities.”
    —Heather Steele, SheerLuxe

    “Dark, powerful new tales by the masterful literary icon.”
    —AARP The Magazine

    “Captivating . . . Humanity in all its devilishness is on vibrant display in these short and potent flashes of life in bleak corners. Readers will be spellbound.”
    —Publishers Weekly, starred

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read

    Today's Top Books

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

         An online magazine for today’s home cook

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook