Sunshine State: Essays - Sarah Gerard, Harper Perennial

A&amp,nbsp,Paris Review&amp,nbsp,Staff Pick&amp,nbsp,-&amp,nbsp,A&amp,nbsp,Chicago Tribune&amp,nbsp,Exciting Book for 2017&amp,nbsp,-&amp,nbsp,A&amp,nbsp,Rolling StoneCulture Index Reccomendation&amp,nbsp,-&amp,nbsp,A&amp,nbsp,Buzzfeed&amp,nbsp,Most Exciting Book for 2017&amp,nbsp,-&amp,nbsp,A&amp,nbsp,The MillionsGreat 2017 Book Preview Pick-&amp,nbsp,A&amp,nbsp,Huffington Post&amp,nbsp,2017 Preview Pick&amp,nbsp,-&amp,nbsp,A&amp,nbsp,NYLON&amp,nbsp,Best 10 Books of the Month&amp,nbsp,-&amp,nbsp,A&amp,nbsp,Lit Hub&amp,nbsp,15 Books to Read This Month A&amp,nbsp,Poets &amp,amp, Writers&amp,nbsp,New and Noteworth Selection&amp,nbsp,-&amp,nbsp,A&amp,nbsp,PW&amp,nbsp,Top 10 Spring Pick in Essays &amp,amp, Literary Criticism&amp,nbsp,-&amp,nbsp,An Emma Straub reccomendation on PBS &quot,One of the themes of 'Sunshine State, ' Sarah Gerard's striking book of essays, is how Florida can unmoor you and make you reach for shoddy, off-the-shelf solutions to your psychic unease.... The first essay is a knockout, a lurid red heart wrapped in barbed wire.... This essay draws blood.&quot, -- Dwight Garner,&amp,nbsp,New York Times &quot,Unflinchingly candid memoir bolstered by thoughtfully researched history.... A nuanced and subtly intimate mosaic... her writing, lucid yet atmospheric, takes on a timeless ebb and flow.&quot, -- Jason Heller, NPR.org &quot,Stunning.&quot, --&amp,nbsp,Rolling Stone &quot,Gerard's prose is unlabored, flatly observational, and the interwoven mini stories are at once tender and cold, exhilarating and regrettable--each undermining the one that precedes it.&quot, -- Nicole Rudick,&amp,nbsp,Paris Review &quot,Brave, keenly observational, and humanitarian.... Gerard's collection leaves an indelible impression.&quot, --&amp,nbsp,Publishers Weekly, starred review &quot,These large-hearted, meticulous essays offer an uncanny x-ray of our national psyche... showing us both the grand beauty of our American dreams and the heartbreaking devastation they wreak.&quot, -- Garth Greenwell, author of&amp,nbsp,What Belongs to You Sarah Gerard follows her breakout novel,&amp,nbsp,Binary Star, with the dynamic essay collection&amp,nbsp,Sunshine State, which explores Florida as a microcosm of the most pressing economic and environmental perils haunting our society. In the collection's title essay, Gerard volunteers at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, a world renowned bird refuge. There she meets its founder, who once modeled with a pelican on his arm for a Dewar's Scotch campaign but has since declined into a pit of fraud and madness. He becomes our embezzling protagonist whose tales about the birds he &quot,rescues&quot, never quite add up. Gerard's personal stories are no less eerie or poignant: An essay that begins as a look at Gerard's first relationship becomes a heart-wrenching exploration of acquaintance rape and consent. An account of intimate female friendship pivots midway through, morphing into a meditation on jealousy and class. With the personal insight of&amp,nbsp,The Empathy Exams, the societal exposal of&amp,nbsp,Nickel and Dimed, and the stylistic innovation and intensity of her own break-out debut novel&amp,nbsp,Binary Star, Sarah Gerard's&amp,nbsp,Sunshine State&amp,nbsp,uses the intimately personal to unearth the deep reservoirs of humanity buried in the corners of our world often hardest to face.