A woman, 32, who has lost both baby and womb, can't take care of herself in this grim novel.

Wells described an even more personal version of this mindless fate in his grimmest novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau.

In this, her grim and engrossing third novel, Ms. Quindlen proves herself a virtuoso of the genre.

This is grim stuff, but no grimmer than your average Stephen King novel.

Ms. Gaitskill's grim first novel is about an obese young woman paralyzed by childhood wounds and an elegant journalist who expresses herself in sadistic sexual relationships.

Estranged from his only child, Johan Sletten, the elderly protagonist of Ullmann's grim but absorbing third novel, learns he has six months to live.

It's an ominous piece of foreshadowing that begins "Nightmare Alley," the 1947 adaptation of the grim novel by William Lindsay Gresham.

Publishers Weekly writes, "In the sequel to his bestselling World Made by Hand, Kunstler delivers another grim and suspenseful novel."

That's a lot of secret stuff to take in before turning the first page of this grim and violent novel of contemporary Moscow life.

Similarly, authors such as Erich Maria Remarque wrote grim novels detailing their experiences.