FLOAT is a wry tale of financial desperation, conceptual art, insanity, infertility, seagulls, marital crisis, jellyfish, organized crime, and the plight of a plastic-filled ocean. JoeAnn Hart’s novel takes a smart, satirical look at family, the environment, and life in a hardscrabble seaside town in Maine.
FLOAT, whose first chapter won the Doug Fir Fiction Award for environmental fiction in 2010, is about the interplay of art, industry and plastics in the ocean. "Infinite Kingdom" is a short story excerpted from FLOAT in Precipitate, (now called Newfound) an on-line journal that explores non-traditional perspectives of the physical world. Listen to an excerpt HERE.
"In this witty, profound, and beautifully observed novel JoeAnn Hart follows the vicissitudes of Duncan Leland, the beleaguered owner of Seacrest Ocean Products as he grapples with bankruptcy, conceptual art, and marital woes. I very much admire the contemporary concerns of Hart's characters and her intricate and entertaining plot."
— Margot Livesey
"Could there be a more hilarious sad sack than Duncan Leland, whose trials and tribulations, so wittily conveyed, had me laughing (and wincing) from the first page? Hart's Maine landscape is rich with eccentric characters, dried fish, and other surprising and original treasures. While Duncan sinks, the reader will float on a cloud nine of classy entertainment."
— Mameve Medwed
"[Float] is all of these things: joyful and troubling, hilarious and somber, evocative and introspective."
— Stefanie Freele, Necessary Fiction
