Swamplandia!
From the celebrated twenty-nine-year-old author of the everywhere-heralded short-story collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves ("How I wish these were my own words, instead of the breakneck demon writer Karen Russell's . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire"-...
| Main Author: | Russell, Karen, 1981- |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | Ackroyd, David (Narrator) |
| Format: | Audiobooks eAudiobook Downloads eAudiobook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Random House Audio,
2011.
|
| Edition: | Unabridged. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
Go to Downloadable Audiobook Here. |
| Summary: |
From the celebrated twenty-nine-year-old author of the everywhere-heralded short-story collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves ("How I wish these were my own words, instead of the breakneck demon writer Karen Russell's . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire"--Los Angeles Times Book Review) comes a blazingly original debut novel that takes us back to the swamps of the Florida Everglades, and introduces us to Ava Bigtree, an unforgettable young heroine. The Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty is in decline, and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, formerly #1 in the region, is swiftly being encroached upon by a fearsome and sophisticated competitor called the World of Darkness. Ava's mother, the park's indomitable headliner, has just died; her sister, Ossie, has fallen in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, who may or may not be an actual ghost; and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, who dreams of becoming a scholar, has just defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their family business from going under. Ava's father, affectionately known as Chief Bigtree, is AWOL; and that leaves Ava, a resourceful but terrified thirteen, to manage ninety-eight gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief. Against a backdrop of hauntingly fecund plant life animated by ancient lizards and lawless hungers, Karen Russell has written an utterly singular novel about a family's struggle to stay afloat in a world that is inexorably sinking. An arrestingly beautiful and inventive work from a vibrant new voice in fiction. From the Hardcover edition. |
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| Item Description: |
Unabridged. |
| Physical Description: |
1 online resource (11 audio files) : digital |
| Playing Time: |
13::0:7: |
| Format: |
Requires OverDrive Listen (file size: N/A KB) or OverDrive app (file size: 369365 KB). |
| ISBN: |
9780307748904 |
| Author Notes: |
Karen is the author of Swamplandia!, which was long-listed for the Orange Prize and was also included in the New York Times' "10 Best Books of 2011." She was named a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" young writer honoree and received the Bard Fiction Prize in 2011 for her first book of short stories, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Russell received a B.A. from Northwestern University and MFA program from Columbia University. (Bowker Author Biography) |