Vampires in the Lemon Grove

2013 MacArthur Fellow Karen Russell’s latest is a collection of strange and sometimes scary stories blending the fantastic and stark realism. The characters and settings are diverse—an old married pair of vampires in Italy, the inmates of a strange silk factory in Japan, Homesteaders in the Nebraska plains (the Award Winning “Proving Up”), a sampling of American Presidents out of time. The tales are strange, enthralling, thoughtful and sometimes horrific—and all beautifully written. They are brought to life in the audio by eight readers—one per story. And each is fabulous, their presentation adding to the tenor of the tale—especially Jo Osmanski in “Reeling for the Empire” and Jesse Bernstein in “Proving Up”. Fans of Ben Loory, Aimee Bender, or George Saunders should give this a try.