Daddy Love: A Novel Read online

  Also by Joyce Carol Oates

  The Barrens

  Beasts

  Rape: A Love Story

  The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense

  The Museum of Dr. Moses

  A Fair Maiden

  Give Me Your Heart: Tales of Mystery and Suspense

  The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares

  About this Book

  This is my son in whom I am well pleased…

  Daddy Love was stern and yet loving. Each act of disobedience, however small, would be immediately punished. And when the child obeyed, and was a true son to Daddy Love, immediately he would be rewarded with food, water, the comfort of his arms and the gentle intonations of his voice.

  The child would learn quickly. They all did.

  Five-year-old Robbie can still remember his mother. He was snatched out of her hands in a shopping mall parking lot. Now he has a new father, Daddy Love, a frightening preacher who punishes him when he is bad. In the blurred edges of Robbie’s young mind, he knows he must escape. But he is just a little boy. What can he do to survive?

  Daddy Love is a taut, compelling tale of evil, terror and survival. A story of every parent’s nightmare, a mother’s defiant love, and the inexplicable resilience of children. This is the new novel from the towering imagination of Joyce Carol Oates.

  About Head of Zeus

  We hope you enjoyed this book.

  We are Head of Zeus, a brand new publishing house dedicated to new authors, great storytelling, and fabulous ideas.

  To find your next read – and some tempting special offers – why not visit our website?

  Reviews

  ‘The unflinching yet restrained tale of the sick symbiosis between an abducted child and his fiendish captor… an urgently compelling and drastically revealing study of evil, habitual terror, and survival’

  BOOKLIST

  ‘If the phrase “woman of letters” existed, Joyce Carol Oates would be, foremost in this country, entitled to it’

  JOHN UPDIKE

  ‘Her prose is peerless… few authors can so compellingly and entertainingly tell a story’

  SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

  ‘Every single Oates novel I’ve read has added to my conviction that she is a genius’

  INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

  ‘One of the female frontrunners for the title of Great American Novelist’

  SUNDAY TIMES

  Contents

  Welcome Page

  Dedication

  I April–September 2006

  1 Ypsilanti, Michigan April 11, 2006

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6 Church of Abiding Hope Detroit, Michigan April 12, 2006

  7 I-80 East Michigan, Ohio April 13–14, 2006

  8 I-80 East Ohio, Pennsylvania April 14, 2006

  9 I-80 East Pennsylvania, New Jersey April 15–16, 2006

  10 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey April 27, 2006

  11 Ypsilanti, Michigan May, June 2006

  12 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey July, August 2006

  13 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey August, September 2006

  14 Ypsilanti, Michigan August, September 2006

  II April, May 2012

  1 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey April 2012

  2 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey April 2012

  3 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey April 2012

  4 Church of Abiding Hope Trenton, New Jersey May 2012

  5 New Jersey Transit Station Trenton, New Jersey May 2012

  6 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey May 2012

  7 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey May 2012

  8 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey May 2012

  9 Kittatinny Falls, New Jersey May 2012

  10 Ypsilanti, Michigan May 2012

  III ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 2012

  About the Author

  Also by Joyce Carol Oates

  About this Book

  About Head of Zeus

  Reviews

  Copyright

  Copyright

  First published in 2013 by Mysterious Press,

  an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, New York.

  This edition first published in the UK in 2013 by Head of Zeus Ltd.

  Copyright © Joyce Carol Oates, 2013

  The moral right of Joyce Carol Oates to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN (HB): 9781781850657

  ISBN (TPB): 9781781850664

  ISBN (E): 9781781852477

  Printed in Germany.

  Head of Zeus Ltd,

  Clerkenwell House

  45-47 Clerkenwell Green,

  London EC1R 0HT

  www.headofzeus.com