This blazingly original debut novel takes us to the swamps of the Florida Everglades to meet Ava Bigtree, an unforgettable young heroine. The Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty is in decline, overtaken by a sophisticated competitor. As her family members variously die, disappear, depart and defect, Ava, a resourceful but terrified thirteen, is left to manage ninety-eight gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief. (Bestseller)