Let the Dead Bury Their Dead - (Harvest American Writing) by Randall Kenan (Paperback)

About the Book

These 12 stories--at once down to earth and fantastical, tragic and hilarious--are about blacks and whites, young and old, rich and poor, rural and sophisticated. "He (Kenen) weaves myth, folktales, magic and reality like no one else I know".--Terry McMillan, author of Waiting to Exhale. A New York Times Notable Book.

Book Synopsis

"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.

Review Quotes

"Nothing short of a wonder-book." -- New York Times Book Review

"Randall Kenan is an American master." -- Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

"A genius, our Black Marquez." -- Terry McMillan, author of Waiting to Exhale

"Kenan's grasp of his lightly fictionalized home's history, geography, and culture was as keen as Faulkner's." -- Slate

"One of America's finest writers." -- Southern Review of Books