Unlike anything Joyce Carol Oates has written before, *A Widow’s Story* is the universally acclaimed author’s poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of Raymond Smith, her husband of forty-six years, and its wrenching, surprising aftermath. A recent recipient of National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Oates, whose novels ( *Blonde* , *The Gravedigger’s Daughter* , *Little Bird of Heaven* , etc.) rank among the very finest in contemporary American fiction, offers an achingly personal story of love and loss. *A Widow’s Story* is a literary memoir on a par with *The Year of Magical Thinking* by Joan Didion and Calvin Trillin’s *About Alice*.