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  • Published: 4 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9781473512887
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 9 hr 15 min
  • Narrators: Robbie Daymond, Romy Rosemont, Michael Bybee, Mark Bramhall, Kaleo Griffith, Joy Osmanski, Arthur Morey

Vampires in the Lemon Grove




A wickedly funny and dark new collection of dystopian tales from the Pulitzer and IMPAC shortlisted author of Swamplandia!

On Strong Beach, an awkward teen with a terrible haircut has a reversal of fortune when he finds artefacts from the future lining a seagulls’ nest. By the Hox River in Nebraska, a window fuels both family pride and deadly revenge. In a godforsaken barn in what they suspect is Kentucky, Presidents Eisenhower, John Adams and Rutherford B. Hayes are bemused to find themselves reincarnated as horses. And in the collection’s title story, Clyde and Magreb – he a traditional capes-and-coffins vampire, she the more progressive variety – settle in an Italian lemon grove in the hope that its ripe fruit will keep their thirst for blood at bay.

Karen Russell is an audacious talent with a wicked sense of humour, and this hotly anticipated new collection confirms her place as a master of the short story form, and one of the most imaginative young writers at work today.

  • Published: 4 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9781473512887
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 9 hr 15 min
  • Narrators: Robbie Daymond, Romy Rosemont, Michael Bybee, Mark Bramhall, Kaleo Griffith, Joy Osmanski, Arthur Morey

About the author

Karen Russell

Karen Russell, a native of Miami, has been featured in the New Yorker's debut fiction issue, was chosen as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists in 2007, and was named one of New Yorker magazine's 20 Under 40. Her first collection of short stories, St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, was longlisted for the Guardian first book award. Her novel, Swamplandia!, was longlisted for the 2011 Orange Prize and shortlisted for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize.

Altogether Karen has now won 2 National Magazine awards and had 4 of her stories published in Best American Short Stories. Both Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove have been US bestsellers. And in 2013 Karen won a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Also by Karen Russell

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Praise for Vampires in the Lemon Grove

Her work has a velocity and a trajectroy that is little less than dazzling and a tough, enveloping, exhilarating voice than cannot be equaled.

Joy Williams, New York Times

A consistently arresting, frequently stunning collection...Even more impressive than Russell's critically acclaimed novel.

Kirkus Reviews

Karen Russell’s third book, the story collection "Vampires in the Lemon Grove," should cement her reputation as one of the most remarkable fantasists writing today

Elizabeth Hand, Washington Post

Russell can take Antarctic tailgaters, an army of seagulls or simply a window and twist a tale that explodes on the page and lingers in the mind

Fiona Wilson, The Times

A touch of paradoxically grounding pixie humour. This way of writing is so clever that nothing needs to be added to the set-up… These stories have unbelievable strength

M John Harrison, Guardian

These stories use the fantastical to make mythic sense of the human struggle, and perfectly balance light and dark, funny and serious, wacky and realistic

Suzi Feay, Financial Times

Russell is practised at whimsy and the surreal, at the magical and the unnerving

Paul Laity, Prospect

Russell’s storytelling, fusing realistic and fantastic elements, is imaginative and beautifully crafted

Tina Jackson, Metro

Wildly fun and full of suspense

Jess Holland, Observer

These stories will win her yet more fans, and offer typically colourful, off-the-wall entertainment

Stephanie Cross, The Lady

Karen Russell’s second collection feels completely fresh… The writing is spot-on throughout, with rich world-building and fleshed out characters

Ally Nicholl, The List

Russell's descriptions are well thought out, and she heightens all of the senses, often bringing taste, touch, sight and smell into her stories

Kirsty Hewitt, Nudge

Hilarious... Dazzling... Exhilarating

New York Times

Russell is practised at whimsy and the surreal, at the magical and the unnerving

Paul Laity, Prospect

A joy of a collection

Bookbag

What makes Russell's writing a cut above the rest is her fresh and inventive prose... Even [her] less effective narratives are hard to forget

Emma Hagestadt, Independent

Loneliness and mortality have never had such a fun twist

Big Issue

As subtle as the colour of Kitsune's silk

M John Harrison, Guardian

Russell is an amazing storyteller, and this book certainly whets the appetite for her next offering

Irish Times