This is the fiction National Book Award winner for this year. Though daunting in size, this book is thoroughly enjoyable and readable. The setting is unique--backcountry Everglades farm communities around the turn of the 20th century. It's a long one (~800 pgs), and I just finished "book one" (of three). It's about the life and eventual murder (don't worry, that's not a spoiler) of a shady plantation owner/outlaw, E.J. Watson, except you never hear the story from his perspective, only from other folks' perspectives. Chapters in the first book rotate among a set of over 15+ characters' points of view. You wonder if his notorious reputation is deserved, or whether he's just a scapegoat for everybody else's hidden desires, cruelties, and human frailties, since everybody seems to have their own story about Watson. I also like authors that write in short standalone chapters--it makes it easy to pick up and read a short chapter and put it back down.