1957Pulitzer 1958
A Death in the Family
James Agee · 1909–1955 · United States
Why it matters
A Knoxville family absorbs the sudden death of its father in a car accident, told in prose as tender and exact as memory itself. Agee died before finishing it; his editor's posthumous assembly still won the Pulitzer.
At a glance
autobiographical fictionfamily saga
Difficulty 5/10slow pace339 pagesLyrical, unhurried prose and a fragmented, posthumously assembled structure.
Deep dive
Why a novel about a random car accident opens with a lyric essay about lying in the grass listening to grown-ups talk, and what that ordering is doing to grief.
Where to go next
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