Now In PAPERBACK
“A feast of invention and a fun house of surprising wisdom, Orange World contains a ghost-ship lodge, tourist trade in a post-apocalyptic drowned city, a tornado farm, a local succubus. Karen Russell moves from the farcical to the forbidden with tender conviction. Don’t miss this book of marvels!”
—Louise Erdrich
“[One] of our most original short story writers… [Russell] has impeccable command of her form….Russell’s particular gift lies in taking themes that are close to universal and presenting them in stories whose strangeness comes to seem entirely natural, even necessary.”
—Emily St. John Mandel, The New York Times book review
“The must-read short-story collection of the summer… Orange World makes me want to shout with joy. Russell’s ease with her material, her sheer glee on the page, shines through in each piece… Delicious… We’re in the hands of a master.”
—Bethanne Patrick, Washington Post
“Brilliant… Stunning… Her imagination is boundless.. .Russell’s last book, Vampires in the Lemon Grove was far and away one of the best books of 2013, and Orange World proves that the author has only gotten better… Russell is one of the most original American authors working today. She’s also one of the best. Orange World is a thing of beauty, a stunning collection from one of the most brilliant literary minds of her generation.”
—Michael Schaub, NPR
“[A] masterpiece… Incandescent… horror always cohabits with humor… [A] superb collection.”
—Maureen Corrigan, The Wall Street Journal
“What’s really spooky about [Russell’s] books is her near supernatural mastery of the written word… Her terrifying and wonderful fourth book, Orange World, is a volume of short fiction that ingeniously interweaves humor, horror, and the joy and absurdity of everyday life.”
—Leigh Haber, O Magazine
“I kept Hawthorne in mind while reading Russell’s astonishing new stories… Russell seems the most natural storyteller alive, so completely does she give herself to premises that might undo a lesser writer.”
—Dan Chiasson, New York Review of Books
“After Russell’s Vampires in the Lemon Grove (2013), one might think that “Orange World” would have a citrusy element, but instead it’s code for all the domestic hazards threatening newborns. Yet household dangers are the least of the fears plaguing Rae during a precarious pregnancy, and late one night her cries for help summon the Devil. He-or, more accurately, it-doesn’t want her soul in exchange for saving her baby; instead, it wants to be breastfed. Their grotesque pact is one of an array of shocking pairings in this ingenious, reality-warping, darkly funny, and exquisitely composed story collection rooted in myth and horror. MacArthur Fellow Russell writes with mischievous clarity, wit, and conviction, grounding the most bizarre situations in the ordinary. A young desert traveler is possessed by the furious spirit of a Joshua tree; a teen loves a mummified girl he pulls from a bog. Historical moments seed some tales, including “The Prospectors,” a sublime Depression-era ghost story about two young women grifters; while others leap ahead, such as “The Gondoliers,” in which sisters use echolocation to navigate a submerged Miami. Heir to Shirley Jackson and a compatriot of T.C. Boyle, virtuoso Russell, gifted with acute insights, compassion, and a daring, free-diving imagination, explores the bewitching and bewildering dynamic between the voracious appetite of nature and its yawning indifference and humankind’s relentless profligacy and obliviousness.”
-Donna Seaman for Booklist, Starred Review
“Eight crisp stories that will leave longtime fans hungry for more. Since her debut more than a decade ago, Russell has exhibited a commitment to turning recognizable worlds on their heads in prose so rich that sentences almost burst at the seams. Her third collection is no exception, and its subjects—forgotten pockets of violent American history, climate-related apocalypse, the trials of motherhood—feel fresh and urgent in her care. Russell takes an expansive view of history, excavating past horrors and imagining the contours of real terror on the horizon….A momentous feat of storytelling in an already illustrious career.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“Amidst the leading pack of talents Karen Russell writes the most like she’s on fire, as in: this close to revelations. Orange World is her best collection yet. Her imagination’s baroque syntax has been planed down to the absolute essentials, allowing the power of her vision to speak for itself…This is prophetic work written with clarifying fury.”
–John Freeman, Lit Hub
“Orange World and Other Stories is so much more than fresh plots. Russell ties these seemingly disparate tales together with a pervading theme of alienation: from the past, from family, from nature…underlying all of this is the exquisite beauty of Russell’s sentences, which will repeatedly surprise readers with their imagery and masterful language.”
—Bookpage, Starred Review
“If the stories in Orange World were novels instead, they might lose their magic—enchantment resides in their transient settings, quickly cultivated trust, scarcity filled with rich, perfect language. And yes: those premises. Thrilling enough to be told around campfires, Karen Russell’s stories are also like fables that teach us how to approach life’s vicissitudes: with curious compassion, even delight.”
—Commonweal
“Karen Russell’s latest, Orange World (Knopf), is another set of masterpieces in miniatures . . . proving her worthy of her reputation as one of our most entrancing storytellers.”
—Vogue
“Orange World is an exquisite example of what author Karen Russell does best . . . this collection is a true work of art—one that uncovers something new with every word.”
—Bust
“Another set of masterpieces…Russell’s language rockets off the page…one of our most entrancing storytellers.”
—Lauren Mechling, Vogue
“Marvelous… Startlingly inventive stories which confirm Russell’s status as master of the slipstream.”
—Sally Franson, San Francisco Chronicle
“[S]urreal stories from an American master.”
—Esquire