The Accursed

　　Princeton, New Jersey, at the turn of the twentieth century: a genteel town for genteel souls. But something dark and dangerous lurks at its edges, corrupting and infecting its residents. Vampires and ghosts haunt the dreams of the innocent and a powerful curse besets the families of the elite–their daughters begin disappearing. And in the Pine Barrens that border the town, a lush and terrifying underworld opens up.

　　When a shape-shifting, vaguely European prince, who might just be the devil, abducts a young bride on the verge of the altar, her brother sets out against all odds to find her. His path will cross those of Princeton's most formidable people, including Grover Cleveland, fresh out of his second term in the White House, soon-to-be commander in chief Woodrow Wilson, a complex individual obsessed to the point of madness with his need to retain power, the young idealist Upton Sinclair and his charismatic comrade Jack London, and the most famous writer of the era, Mark Twain–all of whom are plagued by "accursed" visions.

作者簡介

喬伊斯‧卡洛‧奧茲（Joyce Carol Oates）

　　喬伊斯．卡洛．奧茲寫作以來得獎無數，曾獲美國 國家書評協會頒發的伊凡．桑德羅夫終生成就獎、國家書卷獎、美國筆會／馬拉姆傑出短篇小說獎（PEN/Malamud）。著有當代最為雋永的小說，包括叫 好叫座的《我們是馬爾瓦尼一家》（We Were the Mulvaneys）、入圍國家書卷獎與普立茲獎的《浮生如夢》（Blonde）、《紐約時報》暢銷書《大瀑布》（The Falls）、《掘墓人的女兒》（The Gravedigger’s Daughter）。奧茲亦跨足青少年小說，作品包括《大嘴巴和醜女孩》（Big Mouth & Ugly Girl）、《奇異的綠眼睛》（Freaky Green Eyes）、《逆風飛翔》（After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away）、《性．性感》（Sexy）等。奧茲擔任普林斯頓大學人文學院特聘教授，從一九七八年以來，亦是美國藝術暨文學學會會員。二〇〇三年，獲得共同 財富文學卓越貢獻奬，二〇〇六年，獲《芝加哥論壇報》終身成就獎。

　　Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.