Let the Dead Bury Their Dead: And Other Stories

“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.