Swamplandia Karen Russell by Karen Russell 9780099555834, 0099555832 instant download after payment.

"Stripped down, Swamplandia!, Karen Russell's debut novel, is one more young writer's saga of a dysfunctional family. But Russell is a rare talent."  -  Jane Ciabattari, NPR

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, a harrowing odyssey from which she emerges a true heroine.

"Ms Russell is one in a million. The proof is in Swamplandia!, a novel about alligator wrestlers, a balding brown bear named Judy Garland, a Bird Man specializing in buzzard removal, a pair of duelling Florida theme parks, rampaging melaleuca trees, a Ouija board and the dead but still flirtatious Louis Thanksgiving. Sound appealing? No, it does not. Unless Ms Russell had you at ‘alligator wrestlers’ — not likely — you may well recoil at every noxiously fanciful item on that list... But wait. Ms Russell knows how to use bizarre ingredients to absolutely irresistible effect … "  -  Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Russell has perfected a tone of deadpan wit and imperilled innocence that I find deeply endearing…you never know when a riptide of tragedy might pull away the humour of Swamplandia!"  -  Ron Charles, The Washington Post

Longlisted for the 2011 Women's Prize For Fiction