US novelist Joyce Carol Oates' latest novel is in the gothic tradition, but not all of the demons that bedevil its blue-blooded characters are of the supernatural variety.

The Accursed, which came out early March, is set in Princeton, New Jersey, where the National Book Award winner has worked as a professor at the Ivy League university since 1978.

The novel tells the tale of a curse upon the town's elite families during 1905-06. A work of historical fiction, the book features US President Woodrow Wilson and author-activist Upton Sinclair among its cast of characters.

Oates, 74, the author of more than 50 novels and two dozen short-story collections, began the book in 1984, but she says she was unable to develop a satisfying structure for the story until recently. "I had a project that was very challenging and fascinating, but I never quite felt that the voice was right," Oates says.

China Daily - Reuters