{"product_id":"swamplandia-by-karen-russell","title":"Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Hardcover)","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgainst 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Next Chapter Books \u0026 Bookmobile","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44641073266825,"sku":"9780307263995","price":12.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/6087\/8729\/files\/Swamplandia_-_Hardcover_-_Front_Cover.jpg?v=1758305669","url":"https:\/\/www.nextchapterbookmobile.com\/products\/swamplandia-by-karen-russell","provider":"Next Chapter Books \u0026 Bookmobile","version":"1.0","type":"link"}