As I Lay Dying

William Faulkner

Jun 2013 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

Set in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, As I Lay Dying tells the story of the dysfunctional Bundren family as they set out to fulfill Addie Bundren’s dying wish. Told by fifteen narrators, including Jewel, Cash, Darl and Dewey Dell, As I Lay Dying uses stream of consciousness to unveil each character’s motivations for carrying out Addie’s wish, along with a multitude of lies they have been hiding from each other.

As I Lay Dying was Faulkner’s fifth novel and is included in the Modern Library’s list of 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The novel inspired a number of critically-acclaimed books including Graham Swift’s Last Orders and Suzan-Lori Parks’s Getting Mother’s Body: A Novel. The title, which inspired the name of the Grammy-nominated band As I Lay Dying, is derived from Homer’s The Odyssey.

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About the author

William Faulkner (1897-1962) is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all American novelists and short-story writers. His other works include the novels The Sound and the Fury, The Reivers, and Sanctuary. He twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and in 1949 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.