Pursuit

Pursuit is a 2019 thriller and suspense novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in the United States by Mysterious Press on October 1, 2019. Plot On her way to work the morning after her marriage to Christian pre-med student Willem, Abby Zengler steps in front of a bus and is severely injured. Willem is shocked by the incident, and is unsure whether Abby had tried to commit suicide by stepping in front of the bus. Just before their wedding, Abby had confessed to Willem that her real name was Miriam, and Willem ponders how little he knows about his new wife, as he has never met her family and knows little about her life before she met him. When Abby is well enough to speak, she gradually opens up to Willem about her traumatic childhood. The narrative switches between the present and Abby's childhood in Chautauqua Falls, a fictional small town in upstate New York. Readers learn that Abby's mother, Nicola, married Abby's father, Llewyn Hayman, when she was seventeen years old. Nicola leaves Llewyn, who has become abusive and paranoid since returning from military service in Iraq, but Llewyn is jealous and violent. He is convinced that Nicola cheated on him while he was in Iraq, and coerces Abby (Miriam) into confirming this.