Let the Dead Bury Their Dead

"Nothing short of a wonder-book."--New York Times Book Review The story collection that hailed the arrival of an essential voice in southern literature--a sharp, rich exploration of what it means to poor, Black, and gay in the United States. A three-year-old boy begins to deliver messages from dead relatives. A zombie uprising is led by an evil preacher.

A woman is haunted by a child her husband may have drowned. A pig talks. The stories in Let the Dead Bury Their Dead embody the type of fiction that defined Randall Kenan's career: set in the thinly veiled fictional Carolina town of Tims Creek, they follow a diverse cast of Southern folkways, and stare into a long shadow of history.

A stunning mix of magic, myth, and folktales, Kenan masterfully portrays a world of varied voices, and in wondrous prose, brings to life the ghosts of our past and present.