Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

I had heard all sorts of great things about this book, but the title did not draw me in--if only I had seen the cover, because that is something that would have piqued my interest. But pick it up I did, finally, and it is one of the best books of fiction that I have read recently. Astounding, particularly in it's story line, which one reviewer I read called magical realism. Whatever you call it, it works. Ava, a 13 year old girl who has been raised and home schooled on a Florida island, is the heroine of this novel. She is introduced to us in her family's theme park, Swamplandia (which from the descriptions in the book is aptly named). Ava's mother, Hilola Bigtree, is a force of nature--she is what drives the family and she is the glue that holds them together. She is a famous alligator wrestler, beautiful, generous, and talented--and the star attraction at Swamplandia. Ava's father, Chief Bigtree, a working class guy who has big dreams for Swamplandia that are never going to happen. Ava's older brother, Kiwi, doesn't buy those dreams; he wants to go to a real school on the mainland, but is inexorably tied into his family of origin. Ava's older sister, Osceola, 16, believes she can communicate with ghosts, and seems prone to dangerous liaisons until she gets on proper medication. This strange but entertaining world is turned upside down when Ava's mother dies of cancer--swiftly and suddenly the amazing Hilola is gone, and just as quickly, so is Swamplandia--the various Bigtree offspring deal with the trauma differently, and it is a very good story indeed.