Service95 Recommends is the home of the books we love and reviews from our contributors. In As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, the death and burial of Addie Bundren are told by members of her family as they move the coffin to Jefferson, Mississippi, so she can be buried with her people.
What Paul Murray Says: “If I could only keep two sentences from all of Western literature, they’d be William Faulkner’s: ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’ That’s from Requiem For A Nun, but As I Lay Dying inhabits the same terrain. It’s a Gothic road trip about a family journeying through the badlands of Mississippi with their mother’s coffin. Different family members take turns to tell the story, with each contradicting the other. I first read this when I was 15 and it blew my mind. It’s shorter and easier than some of Faulkner’s other novels, and unexpectedly funny.”
What They Say: “A beautiful novel” – Independent
Available on Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble
For more book recommendations, subscribe to our newsletter
