Wishlist

Saved in this browser only - it isn't synced to your other devices.

Back to the full ranking

#3161 of 8,085 books · #1539 in Fiction

Shortlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction (1974).

State of Grace was a National Book Award nominee. This "beautifully crafted" (The New York Times Book Review), haunting, profoundly disquieting novel manages to be at once sparse and lush, to combine Biblical simplicity with Gothic intensity and strangeness. It is the story of Kate, despised by her mother, bound to her father by ties stronger and darker than blood. It is the story of her attempted escapes—in detached sexual encounters, at a Southern college populated by spoiled and perverse beauties, and in a doomed marriage to a man who cannot understand what she is running from.

Buy this book at AmazonAd
Publisher
Vintage
ISBN-13
9780307787873
Genre
Topics
Family dysfunctionIdentity and escapeSexuality and relationships

Awards

Other awarded books from Joy Williams