Living in Cemeteries

“The effortless world building, buoyed by Dave’s confident narration, immediately immerses readers in the intense unease, carrying them to its emotional conclusion. A character-centered and thought provoking tale that is as much about embracing life as it is about death, this title will appeal to fans of Elizabeth McCracken and Neil Gaiman” -Booklist

Dave Gallagher mows the lawns and digs the graves at cemeteries in his hometown on Cape Cod. He also keeps the peace between the ghosts inhabiting those cemeteries. In the world of Living in Cemeteries, wrongdoing is atoned for by a person’s descendants. Spirits decapitate relatives of serial killers and lay pox blankets over men responsible for the Trail of Tears. The only way Dave can learn of his pre-ordained death is by traveling the New England countryside, visiting haunted cemeteries, asking familial ghosts what fate has in store. A gruesome death, or a happily-ever-after with his longtime girlfriend, Jessica? Marauding Spirit-whipped bulls and deadly nightshade, a doomed roommate and a wayward crypt-sleeper each derail Dave’s path to understanding, but nothing presents more of a challenge than his silent, long dead father. The man’s refusal to speak leaves Dave wondering what evils his parents committed. How dark is the shade cast by his family tree? The only way to find out is to speak to the dead, but Dave’s not always going to like the answers he receives.

“Does friendship/love or ghostly determinism rule the day? The spirits are alive on Cape Cod in Corey Farrenkopf’s Living in Cemeteries. A strange, beguiling, ghostly romp that reads as though Wes Anderson novelized Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners. I’m here for it.” -Paul Tremblay, the nationally best-selling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts

“How Corey Farrenkopf managed to write a novel that’s simultaneously bighearted, wise, unnerving, and a wildly hallucinatory exploration of grief and love, I have no idea. But he did it with Living in Cemeteries, and it’s fantastic.” -Keith Rosson, author of Fever House

“In Living in Cemeteries, Farrenkopf takes reality, deftly shakes up its bottle, and adds one fantastical element that changes the whole formula. An enticing and ultimately compassionate debut that uses death as a means to think through the myriad possibilities of life.” -Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell