As I Lay Dying

A short novel about the Bundren family, poor farmers in rural Mississippi, who set out on a difficult journey to bury the mother, Addie, in her family's town. Floods, fire and mishaps beset the trip. The book is told in brief chapters spoken by fifteen different voices, among them the children, the father and neighbours, so that the family's hopes, grudges and private needs emerge side by side. It is both darkly comic and moving, and is often admired as a bold, compact example of multiple narration.