Mermaids in Paradise bookcover

Mermaids in Paradise

4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world

Description

On the grounds of a Caribbean island resort, newlyweds Deb and Chip--our opinionated, skeptical narrator and her cheerful jock husband who's friendly to a fault--meet a marine biologist who says she's sighted mermaids in a coral reef.

As the resort's "parent company" swoops in to corner the market on mythological creatures, the couple joins forces with other adventurous souls, including an ex-Navy SEAL with a love of explosives and a hipster Tokyo VJ, to save said mermaids from the "Venture of Marvels," which wants to turn their reef into a theme park.

Mermaids in Paradise is Lydia Millet's funniest book yet, tempering the sharp satire of her early career with the empathy and subtlety of her more recent novels and short stories. This is an unforgettable, mesmerizing tale, darkly comic on the surface and illuminating in its depths.

Product Details

PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
Publish DateNovember 03, 2014
Pages304
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconHardback
EAN/UPC9780393245622
Dimensions8.8 X 5.8 X 1.1 inches | 1.0 pounds

About the Author

Lydia Millet is the author of A Children's Bible, a finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times Top Ten book of the Year. Her first work of short fiction, Love in Infant Monkeys, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010; her second, Fight No More (2018), won an American Academy of Arts and Sciences short fiction award. Ativists is her third work of short fiction. She lives outside Tucson, Arizona.

Reviews

Mermaids in Paradise makes brilliant comedy out of a honeymoon trip that veers from the absurd to the sublime and back again. Lydia Millet is a stone-cold genius.--Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation
[A] deft satire... Millet ramps up the suspense.--Melissa Maerz "Entertainment Weekly"
[A] laser-focused satire... The novel has the shape and pace of a thriller... An admirable example of a funny novel with a serious message that works swimmingly. Dive in.-- "Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review"
A hilarious genre-bender that strikes some serious chords.--Jane Ciabattari "BBC.com"
A romp with sharp teeth... a slapstick variation on Millet's abiding theme: the relationship between human beings and the natural world.--Laura Miller "Salon"
Millet, with her keen sense of the absurd, brings the book to a surprising conclusion, and makes a point about corporate greed and the destruction of the environment without being heavy-handed.--Moira Hodgson "Wall Street Journal"
Now that David Foster Wallace is gone, I think Lydia Millet is the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves... she has as good a chance as anyone to write the novel that defines our time.--Charles Finch "Chicago Tribune"
Suspenseful, philosophical, and tropical--the funniest you'll ever read on ecotourism and the wisest you'll ever read on mermaids.--Natalie Beach "O Magazine"
With equal parts calculated wryness and pleading earnestness, [Millet] delivers a thrilling piece of fabulist fiction.-- "Publishers Weekly, Starred review"
I laughed so hard all over town...leave it to Lydia Millet to capsize her human characters in aquamarine waters and upstage their honeymoon with mermaids. I am awed to know there's a mind like Millet's out there--she's a writer without limits, always surprising, always hilarious.--Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove

Earn by promoting books

Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.sign up to affiliate program link
Become an affiliate