Listen free for 30 days

Preview

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Florida

Written by: Lauren Groff
Narrated by: Lauren Groff
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $20.40

Buy Now for $20.40

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

The universally-acclaimed return of the New York Times bestselling author of Fates and Furies, Matrix, and the highly-anticipated The Vaster Wilds

In Lauren Groff’s Florida, the hot sun shines, but a wild darkness lurks. Florida is a "superlative" book (Boston Globe), "gorgeously weird and limber" (New Yorker), "frequently funny" (San Francisco Chronicle), "brooding, inventive and often moving" (NPR Fresh Air)as Groff is recognized as "Florida's unofficial poet laureate, as Joan Didion was for California." (Washington Post)

"Groff's gifts as a writer just keep soaring higher and higher.”–NPR’s Fresh Air

In her thrilling new book, Lauren Groff brings the audience into a physical world that is at once domestic and wild—a place where the hazards of the natural world lie waiting to pounce, yet the greatest threats and mysteries are still of an emotional, psychological nature. A family retreat can be derailed by a prowling panther, or by a sexual secret. Among those navigating this place are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple, a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable, recurring character—a steely and conflicted wife and mother.

The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida—its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind—becomes its gravitational center: an energy, a mood, as much as a place of residence. Groff transports the audience, then jolts us alert with a crackle of wit, a wave of sadness, a flash of cruelty, as she writes about loneliness, rage, family, and the passage of time. With shocking accuracy and effect, she pinpoints the moments and decisions and connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury—the moments that make us alive. Startling, precise, and affecting, Florida is a magnificent achievement.

©2018 Lauren Groff (P)2018 Penguin Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What the critics say

"Lauren Groff is a great storyteller.... Florida is restorative fiction for these urgent times. Its final gestures, even the most ominous...lean toward love and the promise of good people, in not just this state but the world." (New York Times)

"Something untameable lurks restlessly beneath the surface of this book. Groff’s incomparable prose pulsates with peril; its beauty, like that of the titular state itself, lies in a certain wild lushness." (Financial Times)

"These new stories are tight and contained, and they pulse with menace and feral energy." (Wall Street Journal)

Featured Article: The Ultimate Audiobook Gift Guide for Everyone on Your Holiday List

Take the stress out of holiday shopping by giving the gift of audiobooks. Audiobooks don’t weigh down your tote bag, you don’t need to spend hours in the bookshop, and there’s no need for a bookmark! You can treat a book lover to an Audible membership or give them a perfectly picked new book that is ready for your listening pleasure. On each book's page, select the give as a gift option.

What listeners say about Florida

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not worth the read

It felt very pretentious. While the performance was well done, the stories themselves were dry.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!