This week, Robert reviews Cardiff, by the sea by Joyce Carol Oates. Find out more about our What we are reading series here.

“It’s always great to discover a ‘new’ author you like who has actually been around for quite a while and has written a lot!

On a recent trip to my local library in Maidenhead where my wife works, I took out some books by Joyce Carol Oates (who I have never got around to reading despite recommendations). 

I’m now badgering my wife for a constant supply of Oates; she is an excellent author who writes somewhere between high and popular lit styles in a way that is always gripping, examining themes around family secrets and toxic patriarchy  with much dark violence.

I know this all sounds disturbing – but there are often  chinks of light and humanity, all the brighter for the surrounding misanthropy on show. I’m currently enjoying the four novellas of  Cardiff, by the Sea.”