The Corn Maiden

Resumen del libro

"The Corn Maiden" is the gut-wrenching story of Marissa, a beautiful and sweet, but somewhat slow, eleven-year-old girl with hair the color of corn silk. Her single mother comes home one night to find her missing and panics, frantically knocking on the doors of her neighbors. She finally calls the police, who want to know why she left her young daughter alone until 8:00 o'clock.

Suspicion falls on a computer teacher at her school with no alibi for the time of the abduction. Obvious clues-perhaps too obvious--point directly to him. Unsuspected is Judah (born Judith), an older girl from the same school who has told two friends in her thrall of the Indian legend of the Corn Maiden, a girl sacrificed to ensure a good crop.

The trusting Marissa happily went to a secluded basement with the older girls, pleased to be included, and is convinced that the world has ended and that they are the last survivors. Remaining an unaware hostage for days, she grows weaker on a sparse diet as Judah prepares her for sacrifice.

The seemingly inevitable fate of Marissa becomes ever more terrifying as Judah relishes her power, leading to unbearable tension with a shocking conclusion.

"Helping Hands," published here for the first time, begins with an apparently optimistic line: "He came into her life when it had seemed to her that her life was finished."

A lonely woman meets a man in the unlikely clutter of a dingy charity shop and extends friendliness, which soon turns to quiet and unacknowledged desire. With the mind-set of a victim, struggling to overcome her shyness and fears, she has no idea what kinds of doors she may be opening.

The powerful stories in this extraordinary collection further enhance Joyce Carol Oates's standing as one of the world's greatest writers of suspense.

Biografía del autor

x{0026}lt;P x{0026}lt;B Joyce Carol Oatesx{0026}lt;/B nació en Lockport, Nueva York, en 1938 y es una de las grandes figuras de la literatura contemporánea estadounidense. Es autora de más de medio centenar de novelas, más de cuatrocientos relatos breves, más de una docena de libros de no ficción, once libros de poesía y nueve obras de teatro en sus más de cinco décadas de trabajo. Ha sido galardonada con numerosos premios, como el National Book Award, el PEN/Malamud Award, el Prix Fémina Étranger y, en España, con el Premio BBK Ja! Bilbao por el modernísimo humor negro de su obra y el Premio Pepe Carvalho 2021. En 2010 recibió la National Humanities Medal, el más alto galardón civil del gobierno estadounidense en el campo de las humanidades y, en 2012, el Premio Stone de la Oregon State University por su carrera literaria. Lumen publicó x{0026}lt;I Qué fue de los Mulvaneyx{0026}lt;/I en 2003 y Alfaguara inició en 2008 la publicación de su obra con la magistral novela x{0026}lt;I La hija del sepulturerox{0026}lt;/I , a la que han seguido x{0026}lt;I Mamá, Infielx{0026}lt;/I (recopilación de relatos elegida como uno de los libros más destacados de 2001 según x{0026}lt;I The New York Timesx{0026}lt;/I ), x{0026}lt;I Ave del paraísox{0026}lt;/I , x{0026}lt;I Memorias de una viudax{0026}lt;/I , x{0026}lt;I Una hermosa doncellax{0026}lt;/I , x{0026}lt;I Blondex{0026}lt;/I , x{0026}lt;I Hermana mía, mi amorx{0026}lt;/I (Grand Prix de lx{0026} x02019;Héroïne Madame Figaro), x{0026}lt;I Mujer de barrox{0026}lt;/I , x{0026}lt;I Carthagex{0026}lt;/I , x{0026}lt;I Mágico, sombrío, impenetrablex{0026}lt;/I , x{0026}lt;I Rey de Picas. Una novela de suspensex{0026}lt;/I (uno de los mejoreslibros del año según x{0026}lt;I El Culturalx{0026}lt;/I ), x{0026}lt;I Un libro de mártires americanos,x{0026}lt;/I x{0026}lt;I Riesgos de los viajes en el tiempo, Delatora x{0026}lt;/I y x{0026}lt;I Babysitter.x{0026}lt;/I x{0026}lt;/P