Swamplandia!

This exuberant fantastical romp about alligator wrestlers in the Florida Everglades by acclaimed author Karen Russell is, simply put, fun. Ava, daughter of the Bigtree wrestling dynasty, watches as her strange life of learning to wrestle alligators, enticing tourists and no school, soon turns to grief, dwindling ticket sales and the slow encroaching of a sophisticated competitor called The World of Darkness.

When her mother dies, not from the occupational hazard of wrestling alligators, but from ovarian cancer, the family starts to fall apart without her as the main draw, without her to pick up all the pieces of the family’s claustrophobic co-dependency, without her to feed and clothe them. So, Ava must grow up quickly, save her family (especially her sister, who’s having a torrid affair with a dead person).

The book is wittily written and flips between Ava’s quickly-unlearned naivety, the hopelessness of her broken father and her pragmatic brother, Kiwi, who sensing financial ruin in Swamplandia, does a deal with the devil, the corporate evil The World of Darkness.

The book is funny, energetic and steams along at a fast-pace, filled with oddball characters and a world so intensely unique yet strangely familiar, you’ll be swept along for the ride from the first page.