The Falls

It is 1950 and, after a disastrous honeymoon night, Ariah Erskine's young husband throws himself into the roaring waters of Niagara Falls. Ariah, "the Widow Bride of the Falls," begins a relentless seven-day vigil in the mist, waiting for his body to be found. At her side is confirmed bachelor and pillar of the community Dirk Burnaby, who is unexpectedly drawn to her. What follows is a passionate love affair, marriage, and family — a seemingly perfect existence. But tragedy soon takes over their lives, poisoning their halcyon years with distrust, greed, and murder.

Set against the mythic-historic backdrop of Niagara Falls in the mid-twentieth century, this haunting exploration of the American family in crisis is a stunning achievement from "one of the great artistic forces of our time" (The Nation).This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

"Oates is not only on her authentically rendered home ground in this sprawling novel set in the city of Niagara Falls during the 1950s, she is also writing at the top of her form. Her febrile prose is especially appropriate to a story as turbulent as the tumultuous waters that have claimed many lives over the years. Widowed on her wedding night when her new husband, a young minister and latent homosexual, throws himself into the falls, Ariah Littrell, the plain, awkward daughter of a minister, henceforth considers herself damned. Her bleak future becomes miraculously bright when Dirk Burnaby, a handsome, wealthy bon vivant with an altruistic heart, falls in love with the media-dubbed Widow-Bride. Their rapturous happiness is shadowed only by Ariah's illogical conviction over the years that Dirk will leave her and their three children someday. Her unreasonable fear becomes self-fulfilling when her increasingly unstable behavior, combined with Dirk's obsessed but chaste involvement with Nina Olshaker, a young mother who enlists his help in alerting the city fathers to the pestilential conditions in the area later to be known as Love Canal, opens a chasm in their marriage. His gentle heart inspired by a need for justice, Dirk takes on the powerful, corrupt politicians, his former peers and pals, in a disastrous lawsuit that ruins him socially and financially and results in his death. Oates adroitly addresses the material of this 'first' class action lawsuit and makes the story fresh and immediate. 'In the end, all drama is about family,' a character muses, and while the narrative occasionally lapses into melodrama in elucidating this theme, Oates spins a haunting story in which nature and humans are equally rapacious and self-destructive." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"With inimitable virtuosity, Oates weaves the still potent lore of Niagara into her extensive narrative. Using imagery of the river and falls as a driving force, she creates a seamless and engrossing flow that in the end seems natural, inevitable." Washington Post

"The story is part ghost tale, part love story, part history. That the prolific Oates manages to do so much in one book is a testament to her ambition as a writer." Chicago Sun-Times

"The Falls...has the tension of suspense fiction and the melodrama of a gothic novel, but it's coupled with psychological insight and astute social commentary, proving that Oates, in her best work, continues to defy categorization." Los Angeles Times

"A powerful indictment of corporate and government malfeasance, The Falls is also an important book and a gripping narrative that takes its place within a tradition of social novels....[A] delicious page-turner." Portland Oregonian

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneysand Blonde(a finalist for the National Book Award), and the New York Timesbestsellers The Falls(winner of the 2005 Prix Femina) and The Gravedigger's Daughter. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Prince-ton University and, since 1978, has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2009 she received the Medal of Honor in Literature from the National Arts Club. She is married to the neuroscientist Charles Gross and lives in Princeton, New Jersey.