Florida by Lauren Groff

Staff Pick

Enamoring and impossible to put down, Lauren Groff's Florida (Riverhead, $27) is a collection of eleven short stories that explore timeless themes such as loneliness, anger, family, and marriage. Each story is vastly different, but all are connected by Florida as their centerpiece. We meet dissatisfied mothers, sisters, and sons encountering the anxieties of Floridian swamps and suburbia. This collection exemplifies Groff's ability to write from many different perspectives effectively; her writing is somehow superbly lyrical while also cutting and precise. Although in reading we encounter snakes, panthers, and untrustworthy terrain, many of the threats present in Florida are of a psychological sort--proving Groff's singular talent to write beautiful, evocative prose that shakes you long after you finish reading. This collection is a must read for any fiction lover