Unlike anything Joyce Carol Oates has written before, A Widowâs Story is the universally acclaimed authorâs 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 Gravediggerâs 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 Widowâs Story is a literary memoir on a par with The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and Calvin Trillinâs About Alice.