As I Lay Dying

by William Faulkner · 1930

As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner's 1930 Southern Gothic masterpiece, follows the impoverished Bundren family as they transport the dead matriarch Addie across rural Mississippi to fulfill her wish to be buried in Jefferson. Told through a stream‑of‑consciousness narrative that shifts among fifteen distinct voices—including Addie herself from beyond the grave—the novel explores each family member's hidden motives, inner turmoil, and the brutal realities of poverty, death, and duty on a harrowing journey marked by floods, fire, and broken limbs.