First published 1990
Addie Bundren lies dead in her coffin while her family prepares for the journey ahead. Her husband Anse has promised to bury her in Jefferson, her hometown, but the trip across rural Mississippi will test every member of the household. Each family member tells their own piece of the story as they load the wagon and set out on the road. Daughter-in-law Dewey Dell hides her own secret while sons Cash, Darl, and Jewel struggle with their mother's death in different ways. Youngest son Vardaman tries to make sense of loss he cannot understand. The family faces flooding rivers, fires, and their own breaking points as they push forward with their grim cargo. What begins as a burial mission becomes a revelation of the bonds and fractures that hold the Bundrens together.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Jefferson, Mississippi
Period: 20th-century
250 pages · Library Binding · Demco Media
Content warnings: death