The Sacrifice - Hardcover

Joyce Carol Oates [...] is simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious and creative writer going, as far as I'm concerned.--Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

"A fictional account of the infamous Tawana Brawley case... [Oates] uses fiction as an opportunity to interrogate the circumstances that made Brawley's story a sensation and gave it meaning."--Kirkus Reviews

"[A] tale of race, community, and pride... complex and multifaceted."--Publishers Weekly

"In this provocative novel, Oates barges her way into territory where not many white writers have dared to tread - and produced a raw and earnest mix of fiery drama and the bone-cold truths of race as we live it today."--NPR / All Things Considered

"Prize-winning author Joyce Carol Oates recreates the notorious Tawana Brawley case - with an Al Sharpton-like character fanning the flames of fraud - in her explosive new novel The Sacrifice."--New York Post

"Without a doubt this book is timely...If there was ever a moment that called for insight into the scourge of racist policing, this is it....Oates has a sophisticated grasp of racial complexities..."--Boston Globe

"Oates doesn't lack for ambition. Her narrative builds carefully and patiently, revealing how this kind of morality play can occur. She covers a great deal of sociological ground...issues both inside the black community and between the black and white populations of Pascayne."--Roxane Gay, New York Times Book Review

"What is memorable about this book is not its echoes of the Brawley story, but rather what Oates adds, creating new and distinct perspectives... Oates poignantly transports this novel to the present, and we are reminded of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Oates [poses] difficult questions: If someone has not told the truth about a racist incident, does that mean that there was no racism at all? In bringing up issues of race, if we aren't squeaky-clean are our claims that much easier to dismiss?"--Essence, Required Reading March 2015

"If you enjoy historical fiction, there's a wide range of it coming up. In January, the tireless Joyce Carol Oates publishes The Sacrifice, a tense novel based on the notorious Tawana Brawley rape case in 1987."--Tampa Bay Times