Presenter of
the National Book Awards
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Presenter of
the National Book Awards
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Filed in the following archives
Twelve-year-old Suzy Swanson wades through her intense grief over the loss of her best friend by investigating the rare jellyfish she is convinced was responsible for her friend’s death.
The Thing About Jellyfish manages that rarest trick of great literature: It is both simple and huge. Ali Benjamin captures the delicate intimacies of envy and grief, while simultaneously exploring the grandest implications of what it means to be alive. Told in prose that is both elegant and gutfelt, Suzy’s desperate search for a structuring principle to her world leads to poignant self-discovery and a big-eyed look at the meaning of existence itself.
