William Faulkner’s kaleidoscopic road novel navigates the most uneasy questions surrounding family, morality, and death itself.

We follow the Bundrens as they travel the dirt roads of the American South with their deceased wife and mother Addie, whose dying wish was to be buried 40 miles away amongst her kin. The story of that journey comes together through the perspectives of 15 distinct characters, whose inner thoughts offer even more insight when they conflict with each other than when they agree.

Even as dysfunction, decomposition, and recently flooded roads punctuate the story with farcical disaster, the Bundrens’ pilgrimage reveals profoundly thorny truths about each character’s intentions. Written in a pioneering stream-of-consciousness style, As I Lay Dying is a complex portrait of human frailty.