In this latest short story collection by the celebrated 79-year-old author Joyce Carol Oates, all three narrators read with tempered voices. Their no-frills deliveries capture the tension and hard realities of these modern tales of infidelity, deception, and broken dreams. Oates has never been easy on her characters or her audiences. She has always searched for stark truth no matter what the cost. Oates also has a distinctly American voice, and Tavia Gilbert, Stephen Graybill, and Caitlin Kelly are quick to make the most of the straightforward rhythms and singular tones that can make a simple sentence sound at once brightly optimistic and devastating. Oates’s work remains insightful, sometimes brutal, and always vital.—AudioFile Magazine