Zero-Sum
Stories
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Zero-Sum
Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
About this listen
Zero-sum games are played for lethal stakes in these arresting stories by one of America’s most acclaimed writers, the award-winning, best-selling author of Blonde
A brilliant young philosophy student bent on seducing her famous philosopher-mentor finds herself outmaneuvered; diabolically clever high school girls wreak a particularly apt sort of vengeance on sexual predators in their community; a woman stalked by a would-be killer may be confiding in the wrong former lover; a young woman is morbidly obsessed by her unfamiliar new role as “mother.” In the collection’s longest story, a much-praised cutting-edge writer cruelly experiments with “drafts” of his own suicide.
In these powerfully wrought stories that hold a mirror up to our time, Joyce Carol Oates has created a world of erotic obsession, thwarted idealism, and ever-shifting identities. Provocative and stunning, Zero-Sum reinforces Oates’s standing as a literary treasure and an artist of the mysterious interior life.
Cover image: Zeno's Arrow. 1964 by René Magritte © 2022 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Banque d'Images, ADAGP / Art Resource, NY
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16,854
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 15,596
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15,582
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Evil Eye
- Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Donna Postel, Luci Christian, Chris Patton, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 59
Listeners know that few authors are able to create an atmosphere of unease and terror as well as Oates, a fact confirmed by the four novellas presented here. All the novellas in this collection revolve around the theme of love gone wrong - horribly, shockingly wrong.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Some of the stories are excellent!
- By Matthew S. Hill on 03-29-17
-
A Widow's Story
- A Memoir
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Ellen Parker
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 247
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 189
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 189
In a work unlike anything she's written before, National Book Award-winner Joyce Carol Oates unveils a poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of her husband of 46 years and its wrenching, surprising aftermath.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Breathless!
- By Pamela Harvey on 02-18-11
-
Bellefleur
- Gothic Saga Series, Book 1
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 53
A wealthy and notorious clan, the Bellefleurs live in a region not unlike the Adirondacks, in an enormous mansion on the shores of mythic Lake Noir. They own vast lands and profitable businesses, they employ their neighbors, and they influence the government. A prolific and eccentric group, they include several millionaires, a mass murderer, a spiritual seeker who climbs into the mountains looking for God, a wealthy noctambulist who dies of a chicken scratch.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Old School Gothic Literature (Not a beach read)
- By Keijon ford on 05-01-20
-
Blonde
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Jayne Atkinson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 426
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 317
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 314
She was an all-American girl who became a legend of unparalleled stature. She inspired the adoration of millions, and her life has beguiled generations of fans and fellow artists. The story of Norma Jeane Baker, better known by her studio name, Marilyn Monroe, has been dissected for more than three decades, but never has it been captured in a narrative as breathtaking and transforming as Blonde.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? NO UNABRIDGED VERSION?
- By Customer Review on 02-07-13
-
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 30 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 146
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 122
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 123
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: When a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all. Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author’s best-selling We Were the Mulvaneys.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A New All Time Favorite
- By Meg on 06-22-20
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16,854
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 15,596
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15,582
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Evil Eye
- Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Donna Postel, Luci Christian, Chris Patton, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 59
Listeners know that few authors are able to create an atmosphere of unease and terror as well as Oates, a fact confirmed by the four novellas presented here. All the novellas in this collection revolve around the theme of love gone wrong - horribly, shockingly wrong.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Some of the stories are excellent!
- By Matthew S. Hill on 03-29-17
-
A Widow's Story
- A Memoir
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Ellen Parker
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 247
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 189
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 189
In a work unlike anything she's written before, National Book Award-winner Joyce Carol Oates unveils a poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of her husband of 46 years and its wrenching, surprising aftermath.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Breathless!
- By Pamela Harvey on 02-18-11
-
Bellefleur
- Gothic Saga Series, Book 1
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 53
A wealthy and notorious clan, the Bellefleurs live in a region not unlike the Adirondacks, in an enormous mansion on the shores of mythic Lake Noir. They own vast lands and profitable businesses, they employ their neighbors, and they influence the government. A prolific and eccentric group, they include several millionaires, a mass murderer, a spiritual seeker who climbs into the mountains looking for God, a wealthy noctambulist who dies of a chicken scratch.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Old School Gothic Literature (Not a beach read)
- By Keijon ford on 05-01-20
-
Blonde
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Jayne Atkinson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 426
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 317
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 314
She was an all-American girl who became a legend of unparalleled stature. She inspired the adoration of millions, and her life has beguiled generations of fans and fellow artists. The story of Norma Jeane Baker, better known by her studio name, Marilyn Monroe, has been dissected for more than three decades, but never has it been captured in a narrative as breathtaking and transforming as Blonde.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? NO UNABRIDGED VERSION?
- By Customer Review on 02-07-13
-
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 30 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 146
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 122
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 123
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: When a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all. Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author’s best-selling We Were the Mulvaneys.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A New All Time Favorite
- By Meg on 06-22-20
-
Lovely, Dark, Deep
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Jason Culp, Maggi-Meg Reed
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 69
From the legendary literary master, winner of the National Book Award and New York Times best-selling author Joyce Carol Oates, a collection of ten spellbinding stories that maps the eerie darkness within us all. Insightful, disturbing, and mesmerizing in their lyrical precision, the stories in Lovely, Dark, Deep display Joyce Carol Oates's astonishing ability to make visceral the fear, hurt, and uncertainty that lurks at the edges of ordinary lives.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Definitely Dark and Deep
- By Monica on 01-10-17
-
My Life as a Rat
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Sadie Alexandru
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 154
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 134
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 134
My Life as a Rat follows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age 12, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes, Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently “informs” on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her own long estrangement.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Heavy Topics & Satisfying Story
- By Oscar on 06-30-19
-
A Book of American Martyrs
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers, Tavia Gilbert, Kirsten Potter
- Length: 24 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 144
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 135
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 134
In this striking, enormously affecting novel, Joyce Carol Oates tells the story of two very different yet intimately linked American families. Luther Dunphy is an ardent Evangelical who envisions himself as acting out God's will when he assassinates an abortion provider in his small Ohio town while Augustus Voorhees, the idealistic doctor who is killed, leaves behind a wife and children scarred and embittered by grief.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
NO! Just NO! INSULTING!
- By Jill Reynolds on 06-01-17
-
The Outsider
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63,796
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57,753
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57,522
An 11-year-old boy's violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City's most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Will Patton great - story so so
- By Randall on 06-19-18
By: Stephen King
-
Close to the Cradle
- A Thriller
- By: Nova Lee Maier, Alexander Smith - Translator
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
Deeply vulnerable after a traumatic birth, new mother Didi Vos is depending on her maternity nurse to help her heal. But despite her uniform, Hennequin Smith is no nurse, and healing couldn’t be further from her mind. Though beautiful on the outside, Hennequin harbors ugly motives; slowly and subtly, she sets about her plan to gain Didi’s trust and then ruin her life. And when Miriam de Moor - a police investigator - unearths horrifying secrets about Hennequin’s past, the destinies of the three women become chillingly linked.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I tried
- By Jessica M Pham on 02-17-25
By: Nova Lee Maier, and others
-
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home
- A Novel
- By: Lorrie Moore
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 30
Lorrie Moore’s first novel since A Gate at the Stairs—a daring, meditative exploration of love and death, passion and grief, and what it means to be haunted by the past, both by history and the human heart. A teacher visiting his dying brother in the Bronx. A mysterious journal from the nineteenth century stolen from a boarding house. A therapy clown and an assassin, both presumed dead, but perhaps not dead at all...
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Loorie Moore... and yet very not
- By Anonymous User on 06-23-23
By: Lorrie Moore
-
The Sullivanians
- Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune
- By: Alexander Stille
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 34
In the middle of the Ozzie and Harriet 1950s, the birth control pill became available and a maverick psychoanalytic institute, the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis, opened its doors in New York City. Its founders wanted to start a revolution, one grounded in ideals of creative expression, sexual liberation, and freedom from societal norms, and the revolution needed to begin at home.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
As a former member…
- By Lisa Cohen on 07-10-23
By: Alexander Stille
-
Out There Screaming
- An Anthology of New Black Horror
- By: Jordan Peele – Intro / Editor, John Joseph Adams – Editor, N. K. Jemisin – Contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Jordan Peele, full cast
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 223
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 190
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 189
The visionary writer and director of Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and—like his spine-chilling films—its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world . . . and redefine what it means to be afraid.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wondrous dark collection
- By Trav on 10-04-24
By: Jordan Peele – Intro / Editor, and others
-
She Wouldn't Change a Thing
- By: Sarah Adlakha
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
When 39-year-old Maria Forssmann wakes up in her 17-year-old body, she doesn’t know how she got there. All she does know is she has to get back: to her home in Bienville, Mississippi, to her job as a successful psychiatrist and, most importantly, to her husband, daughters, and unborn son.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Very Religious
- By G Crawford on 11-18-21
By: Sarah Adlakha
-
North Woods
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Mason
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Michael Crouch, Jason Culp, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,814
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,575
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,574
When two young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and nonhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to growing apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths an ancient mass grave—only to discover that the earth refuse to give up their secrets.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An American Masterpiece
- By Psumissyh on 09-21-23
By: Daniel Mason
-
Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Hernan Diaz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,136
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,647
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,647
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Before Purchasing
- By JLDLOfficial on 08-13-22
By: Hernan Diaz
-
The Enchanters
- A Novel
- By: James Ellroy
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 46
Los Angeles, August 4, 1962. The city broils through a midsummer heat wave. Marilyn Monroe ODs. A B-movie starlet is kidnapped. The overhyped LAPD overreacts. Chief Bill Parker’s looking for some getback. The Monroe deal looks like a moneymaker. He calls in Freddy Otash. The freewheeling Freddy O: tainted ex-cop, defrocked private eye, dope fiend, and freelance extortionist. A man who lives by the maxim “Opportunity is love.” Freddy gets to work. He dimly perceives Marilyn Monroe’s death and the kidnapped starlet to be a poisonous riddle that only he has the guts and the brains to untangle
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Ellroy is tired
- By butwhatdoIknow on 11-29-23
By: James Ellroy
Critic reviews
“Electric . . . A vein of feminist horror runs through Zero-Sum . . . [Zero-Sum’s] zero-sum games [advance] to an existential battle between humanity and the destructive forces it has unleashed.” —Kate Folk, The New York Times Book Review
“A bewitching collection of speculative stories about women dealing with society and violence . . . [The stories in Zero-Sum contain] quintessential Oates intrigue and mystery.” —Sophia June, Nylon
“An electric story collection from a lit icon . . . Violence simmers and sometimes boils over.” —Keziah Weir, Vanity Fair
Some very good material, but mixed overall
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Dark irony
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.