Sunshine State: Essays

Sunshine State: Essays

<p><strong>Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay</strong></p><p><strong>A <em>New York Times</em> </strong><strong>Critics’ Best Books of the Year</strong> <strong><em>• </em>An NPR Best Book of the Year <em>• </em>A <em>NYLON</em> Best Nonfiction Book of the Year <em>• </em>A <em>Buzzfeed </em>Best Nonfiction Book of the Year <em>• </em>An <em>Entrophy Magazine</em> Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year <em>• </em>A <em>Brooklyn Rail</em> Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year </strong><strong><em>• </em>A <em>Baltimore Beat </em>Best Book of the Year</strong></p><p><strong>A <em>Paris Review</em> Staff Pick <em>• </em>A <em>Chicago Tribune</em> Exciting Book for 2017<em> • </em>A <em>Rolling Stone</em> Culture Index Reccomendation<em> • </em>A <em>Buzzfeed</em> Most Exciting Book for 2017 <em>• </em>A <em>The Millions</em> Great 2017 Book Preview Pick <em>• </em>A <em>Huffington Post</em> 2017 Preview Pick <em>• </em>A <em>NYLON </em>Best 10 Books of the Month <em>• </em>A <em>Lit Hub</em> 15 Books to Read This Month A <em>Poets & Writers </em>New and Noteworth Selection • A <em>PW</em> Top 10 Spring Pick in Essays & Literary Criticism</strong><strong> </strong><strong><em>• </em>An Emma Straub Reccomendation on PBS</strong></p><p>“One of the themes of ‘Sunshine State,’ Sarah Gerard’s striking book of essays, is how Florida can unmoor you and make you reach for shoddy, off-the-shelf solutions to your psychic unease…. The first essay is a knockout, a lurid red heart wrapped in barbed wire.... This essay draws blood.”   — Dwight Garner, <em>New York Times</em></p><p><p>"Unflinchingly candid memoir bolstered by thoughtfully researched history…. A nuanced and subtly intimate mosaic… her writing, lucid yet atmospheric, takes on a timeless ebb and flow.”   — Jason Heller, NPR.org</p><p>"Stunning."   — <em>Rolling Stone</em></p><p>“These large-hearted, meticulous essays offer an uncanny x-ray of our national psyche...  showing us both the grand beauty of our American dreams and the heartbreaking devastation they wreak.”  — Garth Greenwell, author of <em>What Belongs to You</em></p><p><p>Sarah Gerard follows her breakout novel, <em>Binary Star</em>, with the dynamic essay collection <em>Sunshine State</em>, which explores Florida as a microcosm of the most pressing economic and environmental perils haunting our society.</p><p>In the collection’s title essay, Gerard volunteers at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, a world renowned bird refuge.  There she meets its founder, who once modeled with a pelican on his arm for a Dewar’s Scotch campaign but has since declined into a pit of fraud and madness. He becomes our embezzling protagonist whose tales about the birds he “rescues” never quite add up. Gerard’s personal stories are no less eerie or poignant: An essay that begins as a look at Gerard’s first relationship becomes a heart-wrenching exploration of acquaintance rape and consent. An account of intimate female friendship pivots midway through, morphing into a meditation on jealousy and class.</p><p>With the personal insight of <em>The Empathy Exams</em>, the societal exposal of <em>Nickel and Dimed</em>, and the stylistic innovation and intensity of her own break-out debut novel <em>Binary Star</em>, Sarah Gerard’s <em>Sunshine State</em> uses the intimately personal to unearth the deep reservoirs of humanity buried in the corners of our world often hardest to face.  </p><p></p><p></p><p></p>