“Set in the Florida Everglades, the Swamplandia! island theme park is also home to the Bigtrees, a family of alligator wrestlers. When Mom (and star of the show) dies, the Bigtree way of life unravels. Dad heads to the mainland to find investors, while his three teenagers are left to negotiate their losses. Kiwi attempts to infiltrate a rival amusement park, Ossie falls in love with a ghost, and our thirteen-year-old narrator, Ava, wrestles with a force more fearsome than gators: the loss of innocence. A masterful short story writer with a gorgeous debut novel, Karen Russell’s sentences in Swamplandia! are so beautiful and original, they will leave you breathless.”—Michael, Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland