` Florida is a magnificent collection, executed with tremendous depth & precision, unsettling in the best possible way. Lauren Groff is a virtuoso.` Emily St John Mandel, author of Station Eleven In her vigorous & moving new book, Lauren Groff brings her electric storytelling & intelligence to a world in which storms, snakes & sinkholes lurk at the edge of everyday life, but the greater threats & mysteries are of a human, emotional & psychological nature. Among those navigating it all are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple; a searching, homeless woman; & an unforgettable, recurring character a steely & conflicted wife & mother. The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida
- its landscape, climate, history, & state of mind
- becomes its gravitational centre: 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 & the passage of time. With shocking accuracy & effect, she pinpoints the moments & decisions & connections behind human pleasure & pain, hope & despair, love & fury
- the moments that make us alive. Startling, precise & affecting, Florida is a magnificent achievement.