Florida

**A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR****2018 National Book Awards Finalist**In these vigorous stories, Lauren Groff brings her electric storytelling to a world in which storms, snakes and sinkholes lurk at the edge of everyday life, but the greater threats are of a human, emotional and 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; and an unforgettable conflicted wife and mother. The stories in this collection span characters, towns, even centuries, but Florida its landscape, climate, history and state of mind becomes the gravitational centre. With shocking accuracy, Groff pinpoints the connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury the moments that make us alive. 'Restorative fiction for these urgent times.' New York Times A blistering collection ... lyrical and oblique.' Guardian