A Widow's Story

Unlike anything Joyce Carol Oates has written before, A Widow’s Story is the universally acclaimed author’s poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of Raymond Smith, her husband of forty-six years, and its wrenching, surprising aftermath. A recent recipient of National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Oates, whose novels (Blonde, The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Little Bird of Heaven, etc.) rank among the very finest in contemporary American fiction, offers an achingly personal story of love and loss. A Widow’s Story is a literary memoir on a par with The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and Calvin Trillin’s About Alice.

How does one go on when the center of one’s life is suddenly gone?

• An Unflinching Look at Grief: From the disorienting first phone call to the surreal “death-duties” that follow, Oates chronicles the immediate aftermath of loss with visceral, moment-by-moment honesty.
• A Forty-Six-Year Love Story: A tender and intimate portrait of a long marriage to Raymond Smith, explored through the fractured lens of memory after his unexpected death.
• The Hospital Vigil: The descent into the bewildering world of telemetry units and hospital protocol, where hope for recovery turns to free fall in a matter of hours.
• Love and Memory: A profound and literary exploration of what it means to become “the widow,” navigating a world suddenly stripped of its shared meaning and familiar routines.