Harvard Book Store Virtual Event: Joyce Carol Oates

Harvard Book Store, Politics and Prose, and Books & Books welcome bestselling, prize-winning author JOYCE CAROL OATES for a discussion of her latest novel, Breathe. She will be joined in conversation by artist and writer JONATHAN SANTLOFER, author of The Widower’s Notebook and The Last Mona Lisa: A Novel.

Ticketing

There are three ticket options available for this event.

Admission Ticket – $34.25: Includes one admission link, one copy of Breathe, and one bookplate signed by the author. US shipping also included. Books will be shipped to ticket-holders following the event. Please note: we are unable to ship internationally.

Free RSVP Ticket: Includes one admission link. These tickets are limited in quantity.

About Breathe

Amid a starkly beautiful but uncanny landscape in New Mexico, a married couple from Cambridge, MA takes residency at a distinguished academic institute. When the husband is stricken with a mysterious illness, misdiagnosed at first, their lives are uprooted and husband and wife each embarks upon a nightmare journey. At thirty-seven, Michaela faces the terrifying prospect of widowhood—and the loss of Gerard, whose identity has greatly shaped her own.

In vividly depicted scenes of escalating suspense, Michaela cares desperately for Gerard in his final days as she comes to realize that her love for her husband, however fierce and selfless, is not enough to save him and that his death is beyond her comprehension. A love that refuses to be surrendered at death—is this the blessing of a unique married love, or a curse that must be exorcized?

Part intimately detailed love story, part horror story rooted in real life, Breathe is an exploration of hauntedness rooted in the domesticity of marital love, as well as our determination both to be faithful to the beloved and to survive the trauma of loss.

Praise for Breathe

“Powerful. . . . Fecund with fear and anguish, and driven by raw, breathless narration, this hallucinatory tale will not disappoint. Oates is on a roll.” —Publishers Weekly