Joyce Carol Oates at The Cambridge Public Library

Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome JOYCE CAROL OATES—award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, and The Falls—for a discussion of her new novel Butcher. She will be joined in conversation by DAPHNE KALOTAY—award-winning author of Russian Winter, The Archivists, and Calamity and Other Stories.

Ticketing

RSVP for free to this event or choose the "Book-Included" ticket to reserve a copy of Butcher and pick it up at the event. Joyce will sign copies of her new book after the presentation.

About Butcher

In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr. Silas Weir, “Father of Gyno-Psychiatry,” as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics, where he reigns. There, he is allowed to continue his practice, unchecked for decades, making a name for himself by focusing on women who have been neglected by the state—women he subjects to the most grotesque modes of experimentation. As he begins to establish himself as a pioneer of nineteenth-century surgery, Weir’s ambition is fueled by his obsessive fascination with a young Irish indentured servant named Brigit, who becomes not only Weir’s primary experimental subject, but also the agent of his destruction.

Narrated by Silas Weir’s eldest son, who has repudiated his father’s brutal legacy, Butcher is a unique blend of fiction and fact, a nightmare voyage through the darkest regions of the American psyche conjoined, in its startling conclusion, with unexpected romance. Once again, Joyce Carol Oates has written a spellbinding novel confirming her position as one of our celebrated American visionaries of the imagination.

Host or Publisher Harvard Book Store