Nominated for the Orange Prize
Thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, her family's island home and gator-wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades. But when illness fells Ava's mother, the park's indomitable headliner, the family is plunged into chaos; her father withdraws, her sister falls in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, defects to a rival park called The World of Darkness. As Ava sets out on a mission through the magical swamps to save them all, we are drawn into a lush and bravely imagined debut that takes us to the shimmering edge of reality.
Industry Reviews
"Absolutely irresistible. . . . A suspenseful, deeply haunted book. . . . A marvel." --"The New York Times" "[Russell] has thrown the whole circus of her heart onto the page, safety nets be damned. . . . Russell has deep and true talent." --"San Francisco Chronicle "" " "Vividly worded, exuberant in characterization, the novel is a wild ride. . . . This family, wrestling with their desires and demons . . . will lodge in the memories of anyone lucky enough to read "Swamplandia"!" --"The New York Times Book Review "" " "The bewitching "Swamplandia! "is a tremendous achievement." --"Entertainment Weekly " "Seduces before you've turned the first page." --"People ""If no such thing as the Great Floridian Novel already existed, consider it done. . . . A novel of idiosyncratic and eloquent language; hyperreal, Technicolor settings; and larger-than-life characters who are nonetheless heartbreakingly vulnerable and keenly emotional. It's a tour de force."a Praise for Karen Russell's "Swamplandia! ""Karen Russell is young and talented, and has been given just about every age-appropriate honor there is--Best Young American Novelists, 20 Under 40, 5 Under 35. With her debut novel, though, she's leaving the kids' table forever. The bewitching "Swamplandia!" is a tremendous achievement for anyone, period. . . . Effortless prose and [a] small, beautifully drawn cast of characters . . . as densely organic as the swamp in which it is set."--Keith Staskiewicz, " Entertainment Weekly, A- ""If no such thing as the Great Floridian Novel already existed, consider it done. Karen Russell, anointed by "Granta "and "The New Yorker" as one our most brilliant young writers, fulfills the promise of her fiercely original 2006 story collection [with] a novel of idiosyncratic and eloquent language; hyperreal, Technicolor settings; and larger-than-life characters who are nonetheless heartbreakingly vulnerable and keenly emotional. It's as