Media Center: 'Vampires In The Lemon Grove' by Karen Russell

WHO: Karen Russell

WHAT: VAMPIRES IN THE LEMON GROVE, a new collection of stories

WHEN:
Published by Knopf February 12, 2013

WHERE:
Author tour to Boston, Florida, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC

WHY:
“Mind-blowing, mythic, macabre, hilarious and tender.
“Karen Russell’s electrically original short stories propelled her into the literary limelight, then her first novel, Swamplandia!, was chosen as finalist for the Pulitzer and the first Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. In her third book, she returns to the story form with renewed daring, leading us again into uncharted terrain, though as fantastic as the predicaments she imagines are, the emotions couldn’t be truer to life as we usually know it…
“So even though the troubles of a long-married couple are complicated by the fact that they are vampires, and she can transform herself into a bat while he can only pose as a small, kindly Italian grandfather, their catastrophic heartache is all human. The same holds true for the courage and ingenuity Kitsune summons in confronting the horror of her brutal metamorphosis and enslavement in a Japanese silk mill. Ditto for President Rutherford Hayes when he finds himself reincarnated in the body of a horse.
“Russell, in the same vein as Jim Shepard and George Saunders though unique in her outlook, continues her inquiry into the profound link between humans and animals, and what separates us.”
—Donna Seaman in a starred review for BOOKLIST

“Consistently arresting and frequently stunning…even more impressive than her critically acclaimed novel.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS in a starred review

“Russell’s great gift—along with her antic imagination—is her ability to create whole landscapes and lifetimes of strangeness within the confines of a short story.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY in a starred review

Media Resources:
About the book | Author bio | Read an excerpt | Download the jacket or the author photo | Listen to the RH Audiobook

Publicist for this title:
Sara Eagle | 212-572-2195 | seagle@randomhouse.com