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Misery is an American psychological horror thriller novel written by Stephen King and first published by Viking Press on June 8, 1987. The novel’s narrative is based on the relationship of its two main characters – the romance novelist Paul Sheldon and his deranged fan Annie Wilkes. When Paul is seriously injured following a car accident, former nurse Annie brings him to her home, where Paul receives treatment and doses of pain medication. Paul realizes that he is a prisoner and is forced to indulge his captor’s whims.

The novel’s title has two meanings: it is the name carried by the central heroine of Paul’s book series, and King described such a state of emotion during the novel’s writing. King has outlined the creation of Misery in his memoirs, and mentioned that the image of Annie Wilkes came to him in a dream. King planned the book to be released under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, but his identity was discovered before the book’s release.

Misery won the first Bram Stoker Award for Novels in 1987 and was nominated for the 1988 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel

In the fall of 1940, the Nazis are at the height of their power – France is occupied, Britain is enduring the Blitz and is under threat of invasion, America is neutral and Russia is in an uneasy alliance with Germany. Stephen Metcalfe, the younger son of a prominent American family, is a well-known man about town in occupied Paris. He’s also a minor asset in the US’s secret intelligence forces in Europe. Through a wild twist of fate, it falls to Metcalfe to instigate a bold plan that may be the only hope for what remains of the free world. Now he must travel to wartime Moscow to find, and possibly betray, a former lover – a fiery ballerina whose own loyalties are in question – in a delicate dance that could destroy all he loves and honours.