Babysitter JoyceCarolOates

4th Estate €24 While Oates’s tireless output can be hit and miss, this pitchdark page-turner blows you away with brutal vigour. Drawing on a real-life wave of child murders in 1970s America, the plot centres on Hannah, a banker’s wife who falls into an abusive relationship with another man. Narrated as a blizzard of graphic fragments, the novel offers an uncompromising take on the psychology of violence and desire.

Anthony Cummins