- New Arrivals
Fiction- Historical FictionCrime & ThrillersMysteryScience-FictionFantasyPoetryRomanceChildren’s BooksYoung Adult
- Biographies & MemoirsHistoryCurrent AffairsTech & ScienceBusinessSelf-DevelopmentTravelThe ArtsFood & WineReligion & SpiritualitySportsHumor
Children’s BooksListsGift CardsWhat To ReadMy ListsGames- About & Help
- About Tertulia
- Membership & Co-Ownership
- Shipping & Delivery
- Orders & Payments
- Contact Support
- Send App Feedback
- Follow us
- Download the app
The co-op bookstore for avid readers
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Reader Score
75%
75% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 10 reviews on
A "San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times," and "Chicago Tribune "Best Book of the Year
In these ten glittering stories, debut author Karen Russell takes us to the ghostly and magical swamps of the Florida Everglades. Here wolf-like girls are reformed by nuns, a family makes their living wrestling alligators in a theme park, and little girls sail away on crab shells. Filled with stunning inventiveness and heart, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves""introduces a radiant new writer.
In these ten glittering stories, debut author Karen Russell takes us to the ghostly and magical swamps of the Florida Everglades. Here wolf-like girls are reformed by nuns, a family makes their living wrestling alligators in a theme park, and little girls sail away on crab shells. Filled with stunning inventiveness and heart, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves""introduces a radiant new writer.
Book Details
- Publisher: Perfection Learning
- Publish Date: Aug 14th, 2007
- Pages: 246
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.00in - 5.00in - 0.90in - 0.75lb
- EAN: 9781627655781
- Categories: • Short Stories (single author)
About the Author
Karen Russell, a native of Miami, has been featured in both "The New Yorker's" debut fiction issue and "New York" magazine's list of twenty-five people to watch under the age of twenty-six. She is a graduate of the Columbia MFA program and is the 2005 recipient of the Transatlantic Review/Henfield Foundation Award; her fiction has recently appeared in "Conjunctions," "Granta," "Zoetrope," "Oxford American," and "The New Yorker." Twenty-five years old, she lives in New York City.
More books by Karen Russell
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
" Endlessly inventive, over- the- top, over- the- edge stories, all delivered in the most confident, exquisitely rambunctious manner. Fabulous fun."
-- Joy Williams, author of "The Quick and the Dead" and "State of Grace"
" Hallelujah! Karen Russell's work sweeps the ground from beneath your feet and replaces it with something new and wondrous, part Florida swampland, part holy water. A confident, auspicious, unforgettable debut."
-- Gary Shteyngart, author of "The Russian Debutante's Handbook" and "Absurdistan"
" This book is a miracle. Karen Russell is a literary mystic, channeling spectral tales that surge with feeling. A devastatingly beautiful debut by a powerful new writer."
-- Ben Marcus, author of "The Age of Wire and String "and "Notable American Women"
" [Karen Russell] merges the satirical spirit of George Saunders with the sophisticated whimsy of recent animated Hollywood film. . . . Russell has powers of description and mimicry reminiscent of Jonathan Safran Foer . . . and her macabre fantasies structurally evoke great Southern writers like Flannery O' Conner."
-- "Publishers Weekly
"
" Unforgettable, gorgeously imaginative tales. . . . 25- year- old wunderkind Karen Russell-- whose house- afire prose has already lit up the pages of "Granta "and "The New Yorker"-- proves herself a mythologist of the darkest and most disturbing sort."
-- "Elle
"" In spare but evocative prose, the 25- year- old conjures a weird world of young misfits and ghosts in the Everglades.Girls are swept off to sea in giant crab shells and fall in love with spirits; boys have Minotaurs for fathers and incurable dream disorders that cause them to live through humanity's greatest tragedies night after night."
-- "W Magazine
"" Hey smartie, this is for your literary side! Edgy- lit lovers will adore this debut short-story collection set in imaginative venues like icebergs."
-- "Glamour
"
" [Russell' s] stories begin, in prose form, where the jabberwock left off, inspiring a dangerous, often unflattering loosening of the vocabulary. . . . Like Peter Pan, a reader thinks she is traveling in fantasy worlds until Russell's subconscious burbles up and jogs something in the childhood memory department. Uh- oh. Run for your life. This girl is on fire."
-- "Los Angeles Times Book Review
"
" Originality, surrealism and eccentricity . . . one can sense Russell's enthusiasm and playfulness, both of which she has in spades."
-- "Chicago Tribune Sunday"
" Most writers her age haven't yet matched Russell's chief achievement: honing a voice so singular and assured that you' d willingly follow it into dark, lawless territory. Which, as it happens, is exactly where it leads us."
-- "Time Out New York
"
" Already a master of tone and texture and an authority on the bizarre, Karen Russell writes with great flair and fearlessness. . . . The stories of shape-shifting and transmutation in "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" are so extreme and convincing, you fear for what Russelldreams."
-- "The Denver Post
"
" Karen Russell is a storyteller with a voice like no other. . . . Laced with humor and compassion, Russell's work has the charm of children's literature adapted for adults."
-- "People
"
" With this weird, wondrous debut, 25- year- old Russell blows up the aphorism ' Age equals experience.' She also suggests ' Write what you know' is similarly useless, unless she's a girl living on a Florida farm, two brothers who dive for the ghost of their dead sister, and children at a sleep- disorder camp. These stories are part Flannery O' Connor, part Gabriel Garci a Ma rquez, and entirely her own."
-- "Entertainment Weekly
"" ["St. Lucy' s"] is in multifarious ways a marvelous book in the tradition of George Saunders and Katherine Dunn."
-- "New York Post
"" Unforgettable. . . . Original and astonishing, joyful and unsettling, these are stories that will stay with readers."
-- "Booklist "(starred review)
" Russell's first story collection is a thing of beauty. . . . This startlingly original set if stories, which feels as though it might have been written by Lemony Snicket and Margaret Atwood, is not to be missed, and author Russell, whose fiction debuted in "The New Yorker" and who was chosen by "New York" magazine as one of " 25 People to Watch Under 25, " is poised to become a literary powerhouse."
-- "Library Journal
"
" Karen Russell's startlingly original collection . . . features graceful andseductive prose that transports the reader into surreal and yet utterly plausible realms."
-- "Bookpage
"
" Karen Russell's fresh and original voice makes this a stunning collection to savor."
-- "Pages
"
" Russell makes her sparkling debut with these 10 curious, sophisticated and whimsical stories."
-- "OK! Weekly
"" She's the real deal."
-- "Knight News
"
-- Joy Williams, author of "The Quick and the Dead" and "State of Grace"
" Hallelujah! Karen Russell's work sweeps the ground from beneath your feet and replaces it with something new and wondrous, part Florida swampland, part holy water. A confident, auspicious, unforgettable debut."
-- Gary Shteyngart, author of "The Russian Debutante's Handbook" and "Absurdistan"
" This book is a miracle. Karen Russell is a literary mystic, channeling spectral tales that surge with feeling. A devastatingly beautiful debut by a powerful new writer."
-- Ben Marcus, author of "The Age of Wire and String "and "Notable American Women"
" [Karen Russell] merges the satirical spirit of George Saunders with the sophisticated whimsy of recent animated Hollywood film. . . . Russell has powers of description and mimicry reminiscent of Jonathan Safran Foer . . . and her macabre fantasies structurally evoke great Southern writers like Flannery O' Conner."
-- "Publishers Weekly
"
" Unforgettable, gorgeously imaginative tales. . . . 25- year- old wunderkind Karen Russell-- whose house- afire prose has already lit up the pages of "Granta "and "The New Yorker"-- proves herself a mythologist of the darkest and most disturbing sort."
-- "Elle
"" In spare but evocative prose, the 25- year- old conjures a weird world of young misfits and ghosts in the Everglades.Girls are swept off to sea in giant crab shells and fall in love with spirits; boys have Minotaurs for fathers and incurable dream disorders that cause them to live through humanity's greatest tragedies night after night."
-- "W Magazine
"" Hey smartie, this is for your literary side! Edgy- lit lovers will adore this debut short-story collection set in imaginative venues like icebergs."
-- "Glamour
"
" [Russell' s] stories begin, in prose form, where the jabberwock left off, inspiring a dangerous, often unflattering loosening of the vocabulary. . . . Like Peter Pan, a reader thinks she is traveling in fantasy worlds until Russell's subconscious burbles up and jogs something in the childhood memory department. Uh- oh. Run for your life. This girl is on fire."
-- "Los Angeles Times Book Review
"
" Originality, surrealism and eccentricity . . . one can sense Russell's enthusiasm and playfulness, both of which she has in spades."
-- "Chicago Tribune Sunday"
" Most writers her age haven't yet matched Russell's chief achievement: honing a voice so singular and assured that you' d willingly follow it into dark, lawless territory. Which, as it happens, is exactly where it leads us."
-- "Time Out New York
"
" Already a master of tone and texture and an authority on the bizarre, Karen Russell writes with great flair and fearlessness. . . . The stories of shape-shifting and transmutation in "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" are so extreme and convincing, you fear for what Russelldreams."
-- "The Denver Post
"
" Karen Russell is a storyteller with a voice like no other. . . . Laced with humor and compassion, Russell's work has the charm of children's literature adapted for adults."
-- "People
"
" With this weird, wondrous debut, 25- year- old Russell blows up the aphorism ' Age equals experience.' She also suggests ' Write what you know' is similarly useless, unless she's a girl living on a Florida farm, two brothers who dive for the ghost of their dead sister, and children at a sleep- disorder camp. These stories are part Flannery O' Connor, part Gabriel Garci a Ma rquez, and entirely her own."
-- "Entertainment Weekly
"" ["St. Lucy' s"] is in multifarious ways a marvelous book in the tradition of George Saunders and Katherine Dunn."
-- "New York Post
"" Unforgettable. . . . Original and astonishing, joyful and unsettling, these are stories that will stay with readers."
-- "Booklist "(starred review)
" Russell's first story collection is a thing of beauty. . . . This startlingly original set if stories, which feels as though it might have been written by Lemony Snicket and Margaret Atwood, is not to be missed, and author Russell, whose fiction debuted in "The New Yorker" and who was chosen by "New York" magazine as one of " 25 People to Watch Under 25, " is poised to become a literary powerhouse."
-- "Library Journal
"
" Karen Russell's startlingly original collection . . . features graceful andseductive prose that transports the reader into surreal and yet utterly plausible realms."
-- "Bookpage
"
" Karen Russell's fresh and original voice makes this a stunning collection to savor."
-- "Pages
"
" Russell makes her sparkling debut with these 10 curious, sophisticated and whimsical stories."
-- "OK! Weekly
"" She's the real deal."
-- "Knight News
"
"From the Hardcover edition."
" A master of tone and texture and an authority on the bizarre, Karen Russell writes with great flair and fearlessness."
-- Carlo Wolff, "The Denver Post"
" How I wish these were my own words, instead of breakneck demon writer Karen Russell' s, whose stories begin, in prose form, where the jabberwock left off. . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire."
-- Susan Salter Reynolds, "Los Angeles Times Book Review"
" Karen Russell is a storyteller with a voice like no other. . . . Laced with humor and compassion."
-- Lauren Gallo, "People"
" One of the strangest, creepiest, most surreal collections of tales published in recent memory. . . . Her writing bristles with confidence." -- June Sawyers, "San Francisco Chronicle"
" Twent-five--year-old wunderkind Karen Russell . . . proves herself a mythologist of the darkest and most disturbing sort. . . . Ten unforgettable, gorgeously imaginative tales."
-- Jenny Feldman, "Elle"
" Endlessly inventive, over- the- top, over- the- edge stories, all delivered in the most confident, exquisitely rambunctious manner. Fabulous fun."
-- Joy Williams, author of "The Quick and the Dead" and "State of Grace"
" Hallelujah! Karen Russell' s work sweeps the ground from beneath your feet and replaces it with something new and wondrous, part Florida swampland, part holy water. A confident, auspicious, unforgettable debut."
-- Gary Shteyngart, author of "The Russian Debutante' s Handbook" and "Absurdistan"
" This book is a miracle. Karen Russellis a literary mystic, channeling spectral tales that surge with feeling. A devastatingly beautiful debut by a powerful new writer."
-- Ben Marcus, author of "The Age of Wire and String "and "Notable American Women"
" [Karen Russell] merges the satirical spirit of George Saunders with the sophisticated whimsy of recent animated Hollywood film. . . . Russell has powers of description and mimicry reminiscent of Jonathan Safran Foer . . . and her macabre fantasies structurally evoke great Southern writers like Flannery O' Conner."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
" In spare but evocative prose, the 25- year- old conjures a weird world of young misfits and ghosts in the Everglades. Girls are swept off to sea in giant crab shells and fall in love with spirits; boys have Minotaurs for fathers and incurable dream disorders that cause them to live through humanity' s greatest tragedies night after night."
-- "W Magazine"
" Hey smartie, this is for your literary side! Edgy- lit lovers will adore this debut short-story collection set in imaginative venues like icebergs."
-- "Glamour"
" Originality, surrealism and eccentricity . . . one can sense Russell' s enthusiasm and playfulness, both of which she has in spades."
-- "Chicago Tribune Sunday"
" Most writers her age haven' t yet matched Russell' s chief achievement: honing a voice so singular and assured that you' d willingly follow it into dark, lawless territory. Which, as it happens, is exactly where it leads us."
-- "Time Out New York"
" Already amaster of tone and texture and an authority on the bizarre, Karen Russell writes with great flair and fearlessness. . . . The stories of shape-shifting and transmutation in "St. Lucy' s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" are so extreme and convincing, you fear for what Russell dreams."
-- "The Denver Post"
" With this weird, wondrous debut, 25- year- old Russell blows up the aphorism ' Age equals experience.' She also suggests ' Write what you know' is similarly useless, unless she' s a girl living on a Florida farm, two brothers who dive for the ghost of their dead sister, and children at a sleep- disorder camp. These stories are part Flannery O' Connor, part Gabriel Garci a Ma rquez, and entirely her own."
-- "Entertainment Weekly"
" ["St. Lucy' s"] is in multifarious ways a marvelous book in the tradition of George Saunders and Katherine Dunn."
-- "New York Post"
" Unforgettable. . . . Original and astonishing, joyful and unsettling, these are stories that will stay with readers."
-- "Booklist "(starred review)
" Russell' s first story collection is a thing of beauty. . . . This startlingly original set if stories, which feels as though it might have been written by Lemony Snicket and Margaret Atwood, is not to be missed, and author Russell, whose fiction debuted in "The New Yorker" and who was chosen by "New York" magazine as one of " 25 People to Watch Under 25, " is poised to become a literary powerhouse."
-- "Library Journal"
" Karen Russell' s startlinglyoriginal collection . . . features graceful and seductive prose that transports the reader into surreal and yet utterly plausible realms."
-- "Bookpage"
" Karen Russell' s fresh and original voice makes this a stunning collection to savor."
-- "Pages"
" Russell makes her sparkling debut with these 10 curious, sophisticated and whimsical stories."
-- "OK! Weekly"
" She' s the real deal."
-- "Knight News"
-- Carlo Wolff, "The Denver Post"
" How I wish these were my own words, instead of breakneck demon writer Karen Russell' s, whose stories begin, in prose form, where the jabberwock left off. . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire."
-- Susan Salter Reynolds, "Los Angeles Times Book Review"
" Karen Russell is a storyteller with a voice like no other. . . . Laced with humor and compassion."
-- Lauren Gallo, "People"
" One of the strangest, creepiest, most surreal collections of tales published in recent memory. . . . Her writing bristles with confidence." -- June Sawyers, "San Francisco Chronicle"
" Twent-five--year-old wunderkind Karen Russell . . . proves herself a mythologist of the darkest and most disturbing sort. . . . Ten unforgettable, gorgeously imaginative tales."
-- Jenny Feldman, "Elle"
" Endlessly inventive, over- the- top, over- the- edge stories, all delivered in the most confident, exquisitely rambunctious manner. Fabulous fun."
-- Joy Williams, author of "The Quick and the Dead" and "State of Grace"
" Hallelujah! Karen Russell' s work sweeps the ground from beneath your feet and replaces it with something new and wondrous, part Florida swampland, part holy water. A confident, auspicious, unforgettable debut."
-- Gary Shteyngart, author of "The Russian Debutante' s Handbook" and "Absurdistan"
" This book is a miracle. Karen Russellis a literary mystic, channeling spectral tales that surge with feeling. A devastatingly beautiful debut by a powerful new writer."
-- Ben Marcus, author of "The Age of Wire and String "and "Notable American Women"
" [Karen Russell] merges the satirical spirit of George Saunders with the sophisticated whimsy of recent animated Hollywood film. . . . Russell has powers of description and mimicry reminiscent of Jonathan Safran Foer . . . and her macabre fantasies structurally evoke great Southern writers like Flannery O' Conner."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
" In spare but evocative prose, the 25- year- old conjures a weird world of young misfits and ghosts in the Everglades. Girls are swept off to sea in giant crab shells and fall in love with spirits; boys have Minotaurs for fathers and incurable dream disorders that cause them to live through humanity' s greatest tragedies night after night."
-- "W Magazine"
" Hey smartie, this is for your literary side! Edgy- lit lovers will adore this debut short-story collection set in imaginative venues like icebergs."
-- "Glamour"
" Originality, surrealism and eccentricity . . . one can sense Russell' s enthusiasm and playfulness, both of which she has in spades."
-- "Chicago Tribune Sunday"
" Most writers her age haven' t yet matched Russell' s chief achievement: honing a voice so singular and assured that you' d willingly follow it into dark, lawless territory. Which, as it happens, is exactly where it leads us."
-- "Time Out New York"
" Already amaster of tone and texture and an authority on the bizarre, Karen Russell writes with great flair and fearlessness. . . . The stories of shape-shifting and transmutation in "St. Lucy' s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" are so extreme and convincing, you fear for what Russell dreams."
-- "The Denver Post"
" With this weird, wondrous debut, 25- year- old Russell blows up the aphorism ' Age equals experience.' She also suggests ' Write what you know' is similarly useless, unless she' s a girl living on a Florida farm, two brothers who dive for the ghost of their dead sister, and children at a sleep- disorder camp. These stories are part Flannery O' Connor, part Gabriel Garci a Ma rquez, and entirely her own."
-- "Entertainment Weekly"
" ["St. Lucy' s"] is in multifarious ways a marvelous book in the tradition of George Saunders and Katherine Dunn."
-- "New York Post"
" Unforgettable. . . . Original and astonishing, joyful and unsettling, these are stories that will stay with readers."
-- "Booklist "(starred review)
" Russell' s first story collection is a thing of beauty. . . . This startlingly original set if stories, which feels as though it might have been written by Lemony Snicket and Margaret Atwood, is not to be missed, and author Russell, whose fiction debuted in "The New Yorker" and who was chosen by "New York" magazine as one of " 25 People to Watch Under 25, " is poised to become a literary powerhouse."
-- "Library Journal"
" Karen Russell' s startlinglyoriginal collection . . . features graceful and seductive prose that transports the reader into surreal and yet utterly plausible realms."
-- "Bookpage"
" Karen Russell' s fresh and original voice makes this a stunning collection to savor."
-- "Pages"
" Russell makes her sparkling debut with these 10 curious, sophisticated and whimsical stories."
-- "OK! Weekly"
" She' s the real deal."
-- "Knight News"
"A master of tone and texture and an authority on the bizarre, Karen Russell writes with great flair and fearlessness." --Carlo Wolff, "The Denver Post""How I wish these were my own words, instead of breakneck demon writer Karen Russell's, whose stories begin, in prose form, where the jabberwock left off. . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire." --Susan Salter Reynolds, "Los Angeles Times Book Review""Karen Russell is a storyteller with a voice like no other. . . . Laced with humor and compassion." --Lauren Gallo, "People""One of the strangest, creepiest, most surreal collections of tales published in recent memory. . . . Her writing bristles with confidence." --June Sawyers, "San Francisco Chronicle""Twent-five--year-old wunderkind Karen Russell . . . proves herself a mythologist of the darkest and most disturbing sort. . . . Ten unforgettable, gorgeously imaginative tales."--Jenny Feldman, "Elle"