The Way of Florida: A Novel

(Paperback, New edition)

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Relentless, urgent and above all musical, Russell Persson's expertly crafted The Way of Floridarecasts thetragic story of the failed Narvez expedition, which has trickled down through the centuries viaLa Relacin, the official report published in 1542, as well asmany other subsequent retellings.A calamitous attempt to establish Spanishcolonies along the Gulf Coast, of the 300 crew sent inland to explore, only four survived this eight-year ordeal.In bracing, beautiful language this timely narrativeof botched colonialism, nowin its first American Edition,radically reimagines the parameters andresponsibilities of the historical novel.Linguistically rich, sinuous, and maybe even heroic, The Way of Florida offers historical fiction like you have never read it before.

Reviews

Dark, dark, dark, this incessantly numinous account of the funding of the planetary genius which, at any cost, the terrible genies of appropriation disport themselves on native soil, makes for an unprecedented work of language gorgeously twisted by the torsions of narrativenecessity. It also makes for a great book. Entrancing in its choral pursuit of the realities of mans irresistible consumption of man, The Way of Florida rushes Russell Persson to the fore of notable American novelists, men and women who refuse the conventions handedthem. Ah, good conscience tells me I might instead have simply and thus more truly said, Im floored. Gordon Lish

The Way of Florida is, for the figures in the narrative, a doomed and reckless course. But for Russell Persson it is the manner by which he achieves absolute triumph. Here is a strange, bracing, wholly original novel, just when we need it. Sam Lips yte

Russell Persson does with Cabeza de Vacas narrative what Nick Cave did with traditional murder ballads: hones it, gives it a sharp edge, and makes it seem almost uncomfortably close. An incantatory and compelling read, one that will stick with you long after the bookis closed. Brian Evenson

The Way of Florida is a brilliant take on the historical novel. The Narvez expedition continues to be a failed one, of course, but getting lost in Russell Perssons strange language feels like a beautiful and hallucinatory triumph. Michael Kimball

Persson, God, where does one begin There is a seriousness to the pages of Russell Persson that is rarely seen in this age of the instantaneous. Read Persson closely and you will see that he is extremely defiant. He is also extremely subtle in his defiance. David McLendon

The Way of Florida is a compact, driving, rhythmical work . . . complex, rich, sinuous a novel, but quite unlike most. Tom Jeffreys

Author Bio

Russell Persson is a writer living in Reno, Nevada. The first American edition of his first novel, The Way of Florida, first published by Little Island Press in 2018, is forthcoming from Baobab Press in 2025. His second book, These Threads Who Lead to Bramble, will be published by Dzanc Books in 2025. His work has appeared in Unsaid Magazine, The Quarterly, 3AM Magazine, NY Tyrant, Hotel Magazine, Territory, and other literary journals.