St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (2006) is a collection of 10 short stories by Karen Russell. The book, released when Russell was just 25, resulted in the National Book Foundation naming her one of its “5 Under 35” in 2009. Russell is also the recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, and her later novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Swamplandia! is based on the first short story in this collection.

Plot Summary

Most of the short stories in the collection take place on a fictional unnamed tropical island that is likely off the coast of Florida. The stories are generally dark and often have elements of magical realism that heighten their child-protagonist’s journeys into adulthood.

In the first story, “Ava Wrestles the Alligator,” two sisters living in a swamp grapple with male threats, both real and spiritual. Ava, the younger sister, helps run the Swamplandia! theme park in their father’s absence after the death of her mother. Meanwhile, she also tries to keep her sister, a medium, safe from the ghostly boyfriend that possesses her nightly. In the end, Ava saves her sister from nearly drowning as a way to be with her dead beau.