{"title":"Short Stories","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"florida","title":"Florida","description":"\u003cdiv data-expanded=\"true\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content a-expander-content-expanded\" style=\"padding-bottom: 24px;\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eFINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWINNER OF THE STORY PRIZE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe universally-acclaimed return of the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e bestselling author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFates and Furies, Matrix, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eand \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Vaster Wilds\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eIn Lauren Groff’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFlorida\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003ethe hot sun shines, but a wild darkness lurks. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFlorida\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e is a \"superlative\" book (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e), \"gorgeously weird and limber\" (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e), \"frequently funny\" (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e), \"brooding, inventive and often moving\" (NPR Fresh Air) -- as Groff is recognized as \"Florida's unofficial poet laureate, as Joan Didion was for California.\" (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e) \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\"Groff's gifts as a writer just keep soaring higher and higher.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e– NPR’s Fresh Air\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 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, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFlorida\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a magnificent achievement.\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"The Fern","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":58440630009937,"sku":null,"price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0994\/1401\/6081\/files\/florida-paperback.jpg?v=1764895833"},{"product_id":"brawler","title":"Brawler","description":"\u003cdiv data-expanded=\"true\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content a-expander-content-expanded\" style=\"padding-bottom: 24px;\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eOne of our best American writers, Lauren Groff returns with a fierce new story collection, her first since the award-winning and bestselling \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFlorida\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRead alone, each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region -- from New England to Florida to California -- these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,“ one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrecise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBrawler \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ereveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive. It is a timeless, stunning achievement from one of the very best short story writers working today.\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"The Fern","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":58455517724753,"sku":null,"price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0994\/1401\/6081\/files\/brawler-hardcover.jpg?v=1764903340"}],"url":"https:\/\/fernbookshop.com\/collections\/short-stories.oembed","provider":"The Fern","version":"1.0","type":"link"}