Sing, Unburied, Sing
Jesmyn Ward · b. 1977 · United States
Why it matters
A Mississippi boy, his addict mother, and the ghost of a boy who died at Parchman Farm ride together to collect his father from prison. Ward's second National Book Award winner sets Faulkner's ghosts loose in the contemporary Gulf South.
At a glance
magical realismfamily sagatragedy
Difficulty 5/10medium pace285 pagesGhost narrators and a road-trip structure interweave myth with realism.
Deep dive
Why a ghost decades older than Jojo attaches himself to a car crossing Mississippi, and what kind of truth-telling this novel's title insists the dead are actually owed.
Where to go next
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Toni Morrison · 1987BelovedLvl 8Slow burn
William Faulkner · 1930As I Lay DyingLvl 9Medium pace
Eudora Welty · 1972The Optimist's DaughterLvl 4Medium pace
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Gabriel García Márquez · 1967One Hundred Years of SolitudeLvl 6Medium pace