The universally-acclaimed return of the New York Times bestselling author of Fates and Furies.
In Lauren Groff's Florida the hot sun shines but a wild darkness lurks. Florida is a
"superlative" book (Boston Globe) "gorgeously weird and limber" (New Yorker) "frequently
funny" (San Francisco Chronicle) "brooding inventive and often moving" (NPR Fresh Air) -- as
Groff is recognized as "Florida's unofficial poet laureate as Joan Didion was for California."
(Washington Post) "Groff's gifts as a writer just keep soaring higher and higher." - NPR's
Fresh Air In her thrilling new book Lauren Groff brings the reader into a physical world that
is at once domestic and wild-a place where the hazards of the natural world lie waiting to
pounce yet the greatest threats and mysteries are still of an emotional psychological nature.
A family retreat can be derailed by a prowling panther or by a sexual secret. Among those
navigating this place are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters a lonely boy grown up a
restless childless couple a searching homeless woman and an unforgettable recurring
character-a steely and conflicted wife and mother. The stories in this collection span
characters towns decades even centuries but Florida-its landscape climate history and
state of mind-becomes its gravitational center: an energy a mood as much as a place of
residence. Groff transports the reader then jolts us alert with a crackle of wit a wave of
sadness a flash of cruelty as she writes about loneliness rage family and the passage of
time. With shocking accuracy and effect she pinpoints the moments and decisions and
connections behind human pleasure and pain hope and despair love and fury-the moments that
make us alive. Startling precise and affecting Florida is a magnificent achievement.
