Twice nominated for the Nobel Prize, Joyce Carol Oates presents an unbearably taut and terrifying tale combining the fury of folklore and adolescent insecurity.

Marissa is an innocent girl, with hair the colour of corn-silk. She does not hold others in strange thrall, as some young women do, she obeys her parents, she does not stay late after school, lingering on her walk through the swaying heads of maize. She is the perfect sacrifice.

The Corn Maiden is a novella, followed by six other nightmares.