'A svelte and compelling masterpiece ! It is not just a powerful book, it is a beautiful book ! Only a novelist of the very first rank could combine comedy and tragedy so judiciously ! It is an exciting change of gear and a very fine book has resulted' -- Sunday Telegraph '! the climax of Dolores's confession ! is one of his most accomplished and macabre set-pieces, a homicidal-rhapsody-in-bluechh ! Its message touches a nerve that has been raw since man first walked on two legs' -- The Sunday Times 'An incredibly gifted writer, whose writing, like Truman Capote's, is so fluid that you often forget that you're reading' -- Guardian

Stephen King is the bestselling author of more than thirty books of which the most recent are THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, HEARTS IN ATLANTIS and his non-fiction book ON WRITING. He lives with his wife, the novelist Tabitha King, in Bangor, Maine.