by Lauren Groff
First published 2018
Florida shapes everyone who lives within its borders. These stories move through different eras and locations, but the state itself pulls each narrative toward its humid center. Characters wrestle with isolation in small towns where time moves differently. Families fracture under the weight of secrets and disappointments. Strangers make split-second choices that alter everything. A woman confronts her rage during a summer storm. Children discover cruelty in their own backyards. Lovers separate as hurricanes approach. Each story captures people at their breaking points, when ordinary life cracks open to reveal what lies underneath. Groff writes with precision about the small moments that divide pleasure from pain. She shows how geography becomes destiny, how climate seeps into character. The collection builds a portrait of a place where beauty and brutality exist side by side, where the past refuses to stay buried, and where residents must learn to live with what they cannot escape.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, interconnected-stories, slice-of-life
Setting: Florida
Period: 21st-century
9 pages · Audiobook · Penguin Audio
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness