Swamplandia [Paperback]

New York Times Bestseller | Pulitzer Prize Finalist

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 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.

ANew York TimesBest Book of the Year
One ofGranta'sBest Young American Novelists
Selected for theNew Yorker's20 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 readSwamplandia!” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“The bewitchingSwamplandia!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 l3>