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  • Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan book cover
  • Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan book cover
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Let the Dead Bury Their Dead

by Randall Kenan

Tims Creek, history, and the uncanny

$19.83 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

Tims Creek, history, and the uncanny

Set in the fictional Carolina town of Tims Creek, these stories bring together varied characters and Southern folkways with elements of myth, magic, and the supernatural. Their striking premises include a young child carrying messages from dead relatives, a zombie uprising, and a talking pig. Across the collection, the uncanny sits alongside the long reach of history and questions of being poor, Black, and gay in the United States. The result is a portrait of a community shaped by its past as well as by the many lives within it.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in short fiction rooted in the American South.
  • For those drawn to stories blending folklore, myth, and supernatural elements.
  • For readers seeking fiction that explores Black, queer, and working-class experience.

Themes

Southern life and folkwaysHistory and memoryBlack and gay identityMyth and the supernatural

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"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.

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