Karen Russell, author of the celebrated short-story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, discusses her debut novel Swamplandia! It tells the story of Ava Bigtree, of the Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty, who lives in the Florida Everglades, which is in decline and is being encroached upon by a sophisticated competitor called the World of Darkness. When her family in disarray, Ava is left to manage 98 alligators as well as her own grief.