A poor Mississippi family sets out to bury their mother, and what should be a simple journey becomes one of the most singular odysseys in American fiction. Faulkner hands the story to fifteen different voices, each one pulling you deeper into a world of grief, stubbornness, and dark comedy. It is the kind of book you do not just read; you inhabit it.
Listen to As I Lay Dying Free30-day free trial • Your first audiobook free • Cancel anytimeWhat As I Lay Dying is about
First published in 1930, “As I Lay Dying” follows the rural Bundren family of Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, as they carry out a promise to bury Addie Bundren in her hometown. The trip across flooded rivers and hard country tests every member of the family, exposing private motives, resentments, and devotions that none of them speaks aloud. Faulkner tells the whole thing through a chorus of first-person narrators, shifting from one mind to the next so that the reader assembles the truth piece by piece.
The result is a landmark of literary modernism: stream-of-consciousness, fractured, and unexpectedly funny in its bleakness. It is a portrait of poverty and family obligation that stays intimate even as it widens into something close to myth. Demanding but deeply rewarding, it remains one of the essential American novels of the twentieth century.
| Author | William Faulkner |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9780739325377 |
| List price | $17.50 |
Why As I Lay Dying is great on audio
In audio, Faulkner’s many-narrator structure comes alive, since each chapter is literally a different character thinking aloud. Hearing the voices distinguished by performance makes the shifts in perspective easier to follow than they sometimes are on the page. The Southern cadences and interior monologues are well suited to listening, letting the rhythm of the prose carry you through its denser passages.
Who should listen
This one is for readers who love literary fiction that asks something of them and pays it back, especially fans of stream-of-consciousness and shifting points of view. If you appreciate Southern settings, morally tangled families, and a streak of grim humor running under serious themes, you will find a lot to chew on. Newcomers to Faulkner who want a relatively short entry point into his work will find it a strong place to start.
If you like As I Lay Dying, listen to these next
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How to get the As I Lay Dying audiobook free
Yes — the easiest way to get the As I Lay Dying audiobook free is with an Audiobooks.com free trial. Your first audiobook is free, so you can listen to As I Lay Dying during the 30-day trial and cancel anytime.
Listen to As I Lay Dying Free30-day free trial • Your first audiobook free • Cancel anytimeFrequently asked questions
Is “As I Lay Dying” hard to follow as an audiobook?
It can be challenging because the story is told through many different first-person narrators, sometimes in fragmented, stream-of-consciousness style. Audio actually helps here, since the change in voice signals a change in narrator, but it rewards focused listening rather than background play.
How can I get the As I Lay Dying audiobook free?
You can listen through an Audiobooks.com free trial, which gives you your first audiobook free to enjoy during a 30-day trial, and you can cancel anytime. Just note that free-trial titles are for listening during the trial; only audiobooks you actually purchase are kept after you cancel.
What kind of book is it?
It is a work of literary modernist fiction, first published in 1930, set in rural Mississippi. Expect serious themes around family, grief, and poverty, told with experimental structure and a vein of dark comedy rather than a conventional plot-driven narrative.
Is it a good first Faulkner to try?
Many readers consider it one of the more approachable starting points in Faulkner’s body of work, partly because of its length and its clearly divided narrators. It still demands attention, but it offers a strong introduction to his style and his fictional Mississippi setting.