Sunshine State

Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the EssayFinalist for the Southern Book PrizeANew York Times Critics Best Books of the YearAn NPR Best Book of the Year A NYLON BestNonfiction Book of the Year A Buzzfeed BestNonfiction Book of the YearAn Entrophy Magazine Best Non-Fiction Book of the YearA Brooklyn Rail Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year A Baltimore Beat BestBook of the YearAParisReview Staff Pick A Chicago Tribune Exciting Book for 2017A Rolling StoneCulture Index ReccomendationA BuzzfeedMost ExcitingBook for 2017 A The Millions Great 2017 Book Preview Pick A Huffington Post2017 Preview PickANYLON Best 10 BooksoftheMonthA Lit Hub 15 Books to Read This Month A Poets Writers New and Noteworth Selection A PW Top 10 SpringPickin Essays Literary Criticism An Emma Straub Reccomendation on PBSOne of the themes of Sunshine State, Sarah Gerards 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, New York Times'Unflinchingly candid memoir bolstered by thoughtfully researched history. A nuanced and subtly intimate mosaicher writing, lucid yet atmospheric, takes on a timeless ebb and flow. Jason Heller, NPR.org'Stunning.' Rolling StoneThese 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 What Belongs to YouSarah Gerard follows her breakout novel, Binary Star, with the dynamic essay collection Sunshine State, which explores Florida as a microcosm of the most pressing economic and environmental perils haunting our society.In the collections 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 Dewars 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. Gerards personal stories are no less eerie or poignant: An essay that begins as a look at Gerards 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.With the personal insight of The Empathy Exams, the societal exposal of Nickel and Dimed, and the stylistic innovation and intensity of her own break-out debut novel Binary Star, Sarah Gerards Sunshine State uses the intimately personal to unearth the deep reservoirs of humanity buried in the corners of our world often hardest to face.