Swamplandia!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • The bravely imagined, wildly acclaimed debut novel from the author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove—about a thirteen year old girl who sets out on a mission through magical swamps to save her family.

"Ms. Russell is one in a million.... A suspensfuly, deeply haunted book." —The New York Times

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 embarks on her mission to save them all, we are drawn into a lush debut that takes us to the shimmering edge of reality.

“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 langua≥ hyperreal, Technicolor settings; and larger-than-life characters who are nonetheless heartbreakingly vulnerable and keenly emotional. It's a tour de force. . . . Near-hallucinatory in its intensity-not only in it's dark, sad, enthralling plot, but in its descriptions of the swamp: gorgeous, precise, lush poetry. The book becomes sharply suspenseful as Russell's fearless eye and voice go deep into the swamps of adolescence, of what it is to lose a mother, and of Florida itself." -Kate Christensen, Elle "Karen Russell is a fine purveyor of the unexpected, humorous and razor-sharp description . . . Exactly often enough, her vivid description gives way to a deftly inserted truth. . . . Swamplandia! flashes brilliantly-holographically-between a surreal tale brimming with sophisticated whimsy and an all-too-realistic portrait of a quaint but dysfunctional family under pressure in a world that threatens to make them obsolete. . . . Ava is a true contemporary heroine and not easily forgotten." -Pam Houston, More "This impressively self-assured debut novel may bet the best book you'll ever read about a girl trying to save her family's alligator-wrestling theme park." -Karen Holt, O, The Oprah Magazine "Winningly told . . . rambunctious." -Megan O'Grady, Vogue "Russell does what she does best here-presenting a world we recognize and imbuing it with magical mysticism-and does it brilliantly. The surreal is never a prop, and there's a heart to the writing that goes beyond the sensational. The novel's backbone is in the nuanced intricacies of its characters, in their hopes and fears whether tangible or touchingly na ve. . . . Russell's sentences are well-crafted miniatures building to create a world so enchanted that we are both comforted and devastated to realize that it's our own. Swamplandia! is a dizzying cocktail of heartbreak and humor, a first novel worthy of celebration." -Laurie Ann Cedilnik, Bust "[A] cunning first novel. . . . Russell''s willingness to lend flesh and blood to her fanciful, fantastical creations gives this spry novel a potent punch and announces an enthralling new beginning for a quickly evolving young author." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Brilliant, funny, original . . . also creepy and sinister . . . Karen Russell's Swamplandia! is every bit as good as her short stories promised it would be. This book will not leave my mind." -Stephen King "A wonderfully fertile novel by an unfairly talented writer." -Joseph O'Neill, author of Blood-Dark Track: A Family History "Karen Russell's worlds, like her protagonists, are fierce and wondrous and hilarious and heartbreaking, and Swamplandia! features everything a reader could want, from bears with bad rhythm to Live Chicken Thursdays to as visceral and dazzling a portrait of south Florida's now almost destroyed wilderness as you're likely to read. But mostly it's a gorgeous and wrenching portrait of sibling love in all its helpless and furious and panicked indefatigability, and of one girl's determination to do what she can to hold what's left of her family together." -Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand Anyway "I would cross even the most crocodile and yellow-fever infested swamp just to spend an hour with Russell's prose. She has an imagination like Calvino, an ear like Tennyson, a heart like Carson McCullers, an observing intelligence like Marianne Moore; what I really mean to say is she is a strange and wonderful writer like none other I know." -Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances "Lavishly imagined and spectacularly crafted. . . . Ravishing, elegiac, funny, and brilliantly inquisitive, Russell's archetypal swamp saga tells a mystical yet rooted tale of three innocents who come of age through trials of water, fire, and air." -Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review) "A love song to paradise and innocence lost. This wildly imaginative debut novel . . . delivers." -Sally Bissell, Library Journal (starred review) Praise for St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves "How I wish these were my own words, instead of breakneck demon writer Karen Russell's, whose stories begin, in prose form, where the jabberwocky left off. . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire." -Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Already a master of tone and texture and an authority on the bizarre, Karen Russell writes with great flair and fearlessness. . . . The way Russell beds mundane detail in surrealist settings makes her work exceptionally evocative. . . . Russell's astonishing gifts augur well for a novel of maturity and complexity. It's only a matter of time." -Carlo Wolff, The Denver Post "Karen Russell is a storyteller with a voice like no other. . . . Laced with humor and compassion." -Lauren Gallo, People "One of the strangest, creepiest, most surreal collections of tales published in recent memory. . . . Her writing bristles with confidence." -June Sawyers, San Francisco Chronicle "Twenty-five-year-old wunderkind Karen Russell . . . proves herself a mythologist of the darkest and most disturbing sort. . . . Ten unforgettable, gorgeously imaginative tales." -Jenny Feldman, Elle "The landscapes of Russell's imagination are magical places. . . . [A] casual blend of insight and, well, whimmerdoodle. . . . The fablelike settings Russell invents throw the very real absurdity of childhood into relief. . . . Charming and imaginative. . . . [O]ne can sense Russell's enthusiasm and playfulness, both of which she has in spades." -Francesca Delbanco, Chicago Tribune "With this weird, wondrous debut, 25-year-old Russell blows up the aphorism 'Age equals experience.' She also suggests 'Write what you know' is similarly useless, unless she's a girl living on a Florida farm, two brothers who dive for the ghost of their dead sister, and children at a sleep disorder camp. These stories are part Flannery O'Connor, part Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and entirely her own." -Rebecca Ascher-Walsh, Entertainment Weekly "Endlessly inventive, over-the-top, over-the-edge stories, all delivered in the most confident, exquisitely rambunct”

A New York Times Best Book of the Year
One of Granta's Best Young American Novelists
Selected for the New Yorker's 20 Under 40
Nominated for the Orange Prize

“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.” —Elle

“Beautiful, dark, and funny.” —Rolling Stone 
 
“A spook-house masterpiece.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Dazzlingly original. . . . Like the state itself, Swamplandia! is a crossroads where the wild and the tame, the spectacular and the mundane meet; underneath the hubbub of the fantastic lies a family of misfits at sea in their grief—theirs is a story that is as ordinary as it is heartbreaking.” —Boston Globe

“Wonderfully imaginative.” —The Seattle Times

“A rich and humid world of spirits and dreams, buzzing mosquitoes and prehistoric reptiles, baby-green cocoplums and marsh rabbits, and musty old tomes about heroes and spells. With Ava [Russell] has created a goofy and self-conscious girl who is young enough to hope that all darkness has an answering lightness.” —The Economist
“A lusciously written phantasmagorical treat.” —Palm Beach Post

“Swamplandia! flashes brilliantly—holographically—between a surreal tale brimming with sophisticated whimsy and an all-too-realistic portrait of a quaint but dysfunctional family under pressure in a world that threatens to make them obsolete. . . . Ava is a true contemporary heroine and not easily forgotten.” —More
“Winningly told.” —Vogue

“Audacious, beguiling. . . . Ava’s story turns into a tale that could have been concocted by Flannery O’Connor in partnership with the Brothers Grimm—in other words, a first-class nightmare. . . . You will admire this novel for its prose, but you will love it for its big heart.” —The Daily Beast

“Ava’s juicy, poetic voice, assembled through sheer willpower and joie de vivre and desperation from a self-taught young genius’s love of language, is what carries this book. . . . [A] garish and fierce beauty.” —Salon
 
“The talent Karen Russell paraded in her remarkable short story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves has turned into mastery.” —Chicago Sun-Times
 
“Swamplandia! is both a celebration of the Everglades and an elegy for it. . . . Russell has created a credible, captivating universe.” —The Sun Sentinel
 
“Think Scout Finch if she’d been raised in an old-school tourist attraction instead of a tiny town. Or Dorothy if a tornado had dropped her in the Everglades instead of Oz. Or Alice if she had tumbled into a Wonderland populated by gators and ghosts and a man in a coat made of feathers. . . . A story rich in fantastic images and gorgeous language, anchored . . . by its wonderfully human characters and its big, warm heart.” —St. Petersburg Times
 
“A rich, lively narrative (sometimes silly, sometimes sad) with gorgeous language. . . . Russell’s debut novel shines with the glow of the southern sun.” —The Oregonian

“Funny, sorrowful, and engrossing. . . . Hardly a page goes by without the reader marveling. . . . An adventure story, a tale of family, a testament to resilience and an account of America’s homogenization, Swamplandia! is an accomplished and affecting debut.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
 
“Unlike any story you’re familiar with. . . . A mesmerizing gothic portrait of love, death, and the loss of innocence.” —The Gainesville Times

“Russell’s writing is clear, rhythmic and dependable, even as her imagination runs wild.” —Los Angeles Times
 
“An astonishingly assured first novel.” —The Washington Times

“Some novels pull readers forward with plots that demand resolution; others make them want to linger on each sentence, bathing in the delights. Swamplandia! . . . does both, leaving readers with a sweet dilemma: Appreciate the present or forge on to find out what happens next.” —The Columbus Dispatch
 
“There’s simply no question that Russell writes beautifully, even about the darkest of truths.” —Time Out Chicago
 
“May be the best book you’ll ever read about a girl trying to save her family’s alligator-wrestling theme park.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“Satisfying and heart-warming.” —Florida Times-Union

“Gorgeously written. . . . Russell’s flirtation with the fantastic adds a dangerous, off-kilter edge.” —Bookforum

“Intensely moving.”—The Onion’s A.V. Club, Grade: A

“[Russell’s] prose dazzles in any medium.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer


“Russell’s prose is beautiful, vivid, and lovingly creepy—just like Florida itself. . . . Magnificent.” —The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
 
“[A] wonderfully overstuffed, scaldingly funny, and frightening debut. . . . Read this book, pass it on to those who deserve it, and be thankful that the world contains artists like Karen Russell.” —PopMatters.com
 
“Exuberant, big-hearted, and entertaining. . . . In the midst of making readers think, Russell also makes us laugh, cry and gasp as she concocts an amazing and undiscovered world and populates it with characters we come to care for deeply. You’ll want to savor the sentences in this literary triumph.” —Maclean’s

KAREN RUSSELL, a native of Miami, won the 2012 National Magazine Award for fiction, and her first novel, Swamplandia! (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is a graduate of the Columbia MFA program, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, and a 2012 Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. She lives in Philadelphia.

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