Waiting on Wednesday: Mermaids in Paradise

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming released that we're eagerly anticipating. Fall is always a season full of great new releases in fiction, and there are still a number of books I'm waiting for. Here is one I'm especially looking forward to . . . .

Mermaids in Paradise is the latest novel by Lydia Millet, and it's set for release on November 3rd. Here is the official synopsis:

Mermaids, kidnappers, and mercenaries hijack a tropical vacation in this genre-bending sendup of the American honeymoon.

On the grounds of a Caribbean island resort, newlyweds Deb and Chip--our opinionated, skeptical narrator and her cheerful jock husband who's friendly to a fault--meet a marine biologist who says she's sighted mermaids in a coral reef.

As the resort's "parent company" swoops in to corner the market on mythological creatures, the couple joins forces with other adventurous souls, including an ex-Navy SEAL with a love of explosives and a hipster Tokyo VJ, to save said mermaids from the "Venture of Marvels," which wants to turn their reef into a theme park.

Mermaids in Paradise is Lydia Millet's funniest book yet, tempering the sharp satire of her early career with the empathy and subtlety of her more recent novels and short stories. This is an unforgettable, mesmerizing tale, darkly comic on the surface and illuminating in its depths.

This struck me as, potentially, a very entertaining read; I haven't read Millet before and I'd like to. "Darkly comic on the surface and illuminating in its depths"--that sounds marvelous (although I know, I know, you have to take the publishers' official write-ups with a grain of salt!). It sounds like a comedy of errors with a sort of a Carl Hiaasen vibe. Plus, Karen Russell blurbed the book with these words: "I laughed so hard all over town . . . I am awed to know there's a mind like Millet's out there--she's a writer without limits, always surprising, always hilarious." I'm an ENORMOUS fan of Karen Russell's, so if she was impressed, you can bet this book is on my list!

Does Mermaids in Paradise sound like a novel you'd like to read? What upcoming releases are you anxiously awaiting?