From the author of 'Blonde', 'The Falls' and 'We Were the Mulvaneys', this new novel takes in the themes of race, immigration, family and social mobility, and is Joyce Carol Oates at her storytelling best. 'The Gravedigger's Daughter' tells the tale of Rebecca Schwart, born in the late 1930s to an immigrant family from Nazi Germany, just as they are arriving to America. The family settles in a small, bleak town in upstate New York, where the only job the father can get is as the town gravedigger and caretaker of the cemetery. Soon the town's prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty results in unspeakable tragedy. In the wake of this loss, and in an attempt to put her past behind her, young Rebecca Schwart moves on, across America and through a series of listless marriages, in search of somewhere, and someone, to whom she can belong.

乔伊斯•卡罗尔•欧茨，一九三八年出生于纽约州的工人家庭，一九六○年毕业于锡拉丘兹大学，次年在威斯康星大学获文学硕士学位，一九六八至一九七八年在加拿大温索尔大学教英美文学，一九七八年以后，她搬到新泽西的普林斯顿，在普林斯顿大学教授文学创作。同时她和丈夫还经营一家小出版社，出版文学杂志《安大略评论》，直到她丈夫于二○○八年去世。

欧茨的创作力极为旺盛，以多产而闻名。自处女作短篇小说集《北门畔》（By the North Gate，1963）问世以来，迄今她已出版一百余部作品，包括长篇小说、短篇小说集、诗集、剧本和文学评论等。一九七○年以长篇小说代表作《他们》（Them）获得美国国家图书奖；《漆黑的水》（Black Water，1992）等三部作品获普利策提名；《大瀑布》（The Falls，2004）获二○○五年度法国费米纳文学奖。《我们是马尔瓦尼一家》（We Were the Mulvaneys，1996）于二○○一年入选“奥普拉读书俱乐部”的推荐书。她被认为是一九六○年代以来最重要的美国小说家之一。

《掘墓人的女儿》（The Gravedigger’s Daughter）是她的第三十六部小说，入围美国国家图书奖书评家奖。