Swamp Story: Dave Barry’s Most Florida Novel Yet
A broke single mom finds buried treasure in the Everglades. An unemployed journalist puts on a Dora the Explorer costume head and pretends to be a swamp monster. A presidential candidate shows up. It all makes perfect sense if you live in Florida.
Dave Barry has been making people laugh about Florida for decades, and Swamp Story might be his most Florida novel yet. Jesse Braddock is stuck in a cabin deep in the Everglades with her baby and her useless ex-boyfriend when she stumbles onto a long-lost treasure. Meanwhile, Ken Bortle of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer goes viral on TikTok with videos of a fake swamp creature, sending hordes of influencers into the marsh just as some very bad people come looking for Jesse’s loot.
It’s ridiculous, chaotic, and completely plausible if you’ve spent any time south of Lake Okeechobee. Barry won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary back in 1988, and he’s been Florida’s unofficial satirist-in-chief ever since.
