Born into a life of poverty and transience, Clara Walpole refuses to accept the bleak future laid out for her. The daughter of migrant farmworkers, she is determined to escape the cycle of violence and deprivation that consumed her mother. But independence comes at a cost, and Clara’s path is shaped by the men who enter her life—each offering love, stability, or power, yet demanding something in return.
From a brooding laborer to a wealthy landowner, and finally to the son who inherits her ambitions, Clara’s choices ripple across generations. Can she carve out the life she longs for, or will she be forever tethered to the past?
The first novel in Joyce Carol Oates’s Wonderland Quartet, A Garden of Earthly Delights is a masterful meditation on ambition, class, and survival.
