A tender, hilarious novel about contemporary America. With ‘Middle Age' Joyce Carol Oates has been acclaimed as one of the most important writers of her time.Salthill-on-Hudson is half an hour outside New York, a place where the inhabitants are beautiful, rich and, though they look younger than they really are, middle-aged.When the enigmatic sculptor Adam Berendt dies suddenly, his death sends shock waves through the town. His loss and rumours of Adam's possible lovers force the community to re-evaluate their lives.Adam's lawyer, Roger Cavanagh, who has broken the law for Adam's sake, becomes involved with an elusive and perhaps treacherous young woman. Marina Troy exiles herself to fulfil a wish Adam had made for her. Lionel sets out, unwisely but with great hope, to re capture his youth lost after a lifetime of financial success, even as his wife Camille discovers an unspeakable joy close to home. Augusta Cutler, a hitherto sensuous, unreflective woman, sets out defiantly to solve the mystery of Adam's origins.‘Middle Age' is an intimately drawn group portrait and a richly sympathetic yet unsparingly comic portrait of present-day affluent America from one of the finest writers of contemporary fiction.