The Antidote

Powerful… weaves together a kind of rural American magic realism with passionate care for the natural world we’re so busy destroying – Erica Wagner * Financial Times *A brilliant writer with an amazing imagination * The Times *An elaborate embroidery of social, geological, historical, and environmental research on the impact of American Western expansion… [Russell’s] sharp narrative grasp guides the reader from character to character as the book unfolds’ * Los Angeles Times *Russell gets better and better with every word, she is a pure dust storm of utter genius – DAISY JOHNSON, author of Everything UnderKaren Russell is one of our most humane and generous writers; this book is as profound as it is wonderfully strange – LAUREN GROFF, author of MatrixIt’s magic, a book doing this big work and also making it propulsive, eminently readable. Russell has rendered with soul and urgency the vast inexpressible ache at the heart of American gratitude – KAVEH AKBAR, author of Martyr!Russell’s… potent prose and sheer originality consistently dazzle – Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday *This novel swept me up and carried me away, even while somehow burying me, and digging up something about the story of [America] I didn’t know I needed to know – TOMMY ORANGE, author of Wandering StarsBrilliant. A vital exploration of America’s truths and legacies, a novel for our times – IRENOSEN OKOJIEHere in The Antidote, Karen Russel has summoned her singular brand of alchemy and created an epic of heart and devastation, community and laughter, death and life. A book that has it all. An absolute wonder – NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH, author of Chain-Gang All-StarsKaren Russell’s novel is generous, profound, and will stay with me for a long time – KELLY LINK, author of Get in TroubleBrilliant… [Russell] writes like nobody else on the planet – TÉA OBREHT, author of The Tiger’s WifeA singular, haunting vision that fearlessly excavates the past and challenges the reader to face the future head-on. A storytelling tour de force * Kirkus (starred review) *Spellbinding… an inspired and unforgettable fusion of the gritty and the fantastic * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Russell is truly one of the greatest writers of our time… every page is pocked with joy, beauty, wildness and the perfect wisdom of mystery – RIVKA GALCHEN, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother is a WitchRussell’s prose is something to be savored… Her language is both lush and sharp, weaving a dreamlike quality into the story that makes the characters’ emotional journeys feel all the more visceral. Russell navigates these emotional landscapes with care and respect and the distinct gift she carries that is heaven—I mean Love – MORGAN TALTY, author of Fire ExitKaren Russell proves once again that there is no limit to her extraordinary imagination. She creates marvels out of what we imagine to be the ordinary world, she turns the historical novel upside down and shake from it a thing of exquisite beauty that is unlike anything you’ve ever read – DINAW MENGESTU, author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven BearsRussell has deep and true talent * San Francisco Chronicle *

Karen Russell is the author of six books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. Swamplandia! was a New York Times Top Ten Book and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the recipient of the 2024 Mary McCarthy Award, the 2023 Bottari Lattes Grinzane Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award, and two National Magazine Awards for Fiction. She was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists and selected for the New Yorker’s 20 under 40 list. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, son, and daughter.

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