description: A man climbs over the railings and plunges into Niagara Falls. A newlywed, he has left behind his wife, Ariah Erskine, in the honeymoon suite the morning after their wedding. "The Widow Bride of The Falls," as Ariah comes to be known, begins a relentless, seven-day vigil in the mist, waiting for his body to be found. At her side throughout, confirmed bachelor and pillar of the community Dirk Burnaby is unexpectedly transfixed by the strange, otherworldly gaze of this plain, strange woman, falling in love with her though they barely exchange a word. What follows is their passionate love affair, marriage, and children -- a seemingly perfect existence. But the tragedy by which their life together began shadows them, damaging their idyll with distrust, greed, and even murder. What unfurls is a drama of parents and their children; of secrets and sins; of lawsuits, murder and eventually redemption. Set against the mythic historic backdrop of Niagara Falls, Joyce Carol Oates explores the American family in crisis, but also America itself in the mid-twentieth century. The Falls is a love story gone wrong and righted and it alone places Joyce Carol Oates definitively in the company of the great American novelists. Performed by Anna Fields
language: English
title: The Falls
titlecomplete: The Falls
characters: Bud Stonecrop, Stroughton Howell, Gilbert Erskine, Ariah Juliet Littrell, Dirk Burnaby, Claudine Burnaby, Juliet Burnaby, Royall Burnaby, Reginald Burnaby, Chandler Burnaby, Buzz Fitch, Reverend Thaddeus Littrell, Nina Olshaker, Clyde Colborne
genres: American, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Adult Fiction, Literature, The United States Of America, Family, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 10853
places: The United States of America, Niagara Falls, New York
awards: awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Longlist, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Prix Femina
category: Étranger
publisher: HarperAudio