Beautiful Days

By: Joyce Carol Oates Who? One of America’s greatest writers. Aged 79, she has published more than 40 novels, five of which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Got an hour and a half? Read: The Bereaved. A stepmother comes to terms with the loss of her stepdaughter, who she never really got on with. Got 16 minutes? Read: The Memorial Field At Hazard, Minnesota. A former US President wakes up in hospital, and goes to see the bodies of the hundreds of people whose deaths he feels responsible for.

Bluff it: “As she does in most of her writing, Oates brilliantly treads the line between condemnation of, and fascination with, her flawed characters.” £18.99, Ecco