'Simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious and creative writer going' Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

'I stand in awe before such an unresting hunger for the literary endeavour' Rose Tremain

'My Life as a Rat is Oates at her best - a powerful, uncompromising story that explores racism, misogyny and recent American history' Kate Saunders, The Times

'Sexism, rape, racism. Murder, sadism - fans will savour this stew of typical Oatsian nasties, in which 12-year old Violet is cruelly exiled from her family ... the odyssey her psyche endures is served well by Oates's juttery, rough-edged prose' Mail on Sunday

'Oates's novel adroitly touches on race, loyalty, misogyny, and class inequality while also telling a moving story with a winning narrator. This book should please her fans and win her new ones' Publishers Weekly

'Oates's prose contains a deep-felt rawness which hoversbetween hope, despair and love' Guardian

'Simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious and creative writer going' Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

'I stand in awe before such an unresting hunger for the literary endeavour' Rose Tremain

'My Life as a Rat is Oates at her best - a powerful, uncompromising story that explores racism, misogyny and recent American history' Kate Saunders, The Times

'Sexism, rape, racism. Murder, sadism - fans will savour this stew of typical Oatsian nasties, in which 12-year old Violet is cruelly exiled from her family ... the odyssey her psyche endures is served well by Oates's juttery, rough-edged prose' Mail on Sunday

'Oates's novel adroitly touches on race, loyalty, misogyny, and class inequality while also telling a moving story with a winning narrator. This book should please her fans and win her new ones' Publishers Weekly

'Oates's prose contains a deep-felt rawness which hovers between hope, despair and love' Guardian