God Is Dead

By: Ron Currie

Narrated by: Junior Nyong'o, Karissa Vacker, Nick Trengove, Blair Young, Vas Eli, Ron Currie, Vikas Adam, Lee Osorio

The electrifying, "cutting-edge" (USA Today) debut work of fiction from Ron Currie, author of the forethcoming novel The One-Eyed Man (March 2017)

Ron Currie’s gutsy, funny book is instantly gripping: If God takes human form and dies, what would become of life as we know it? Effortlessly combining outlandish humor with big questions about mortality, ethics, and human weakness, Ron Currie, Jr., holds a funhouse mirror to our present-day world. God has inhabited the mortal body of a young Dinka woman in the Sudan. When she is killed in the Darfur desert, he dies along with her, and word of his death soon begins to spread. Faced with the hard proof that there is no supreme being in charge, the world is irrevocably transformed, yet remains oddly recognizable.

Critic reviews

"Currie's strength rests in his ability to focus on humanity's conundrums on the smallest physical particles. The truth he presents is that the world has become adsurd; he is merely delivering a steady-cam view."
--Los Angeles Times

"[A] cavalierly abitious debut . . . with talking dogs, text message-happy teenagers, and end-of-day shenanigans. Like Kurt Vonnegut, [Currie] seems to understand that in the face of grim and grave concerns, humor is a more powerful salt than screed."
--John Freeman, San Francisco Chronicle

"Few authors would dare to depict the near rape and death of God amid a horrendous genocidal war, and fewer still could make it so bladder-threateningly hilarious. Although there's genuine sadness throughout, God is Dead is very likely the most entertaining book ever written on the subject of deicide."
--The Believer

"God is Dead is a heady cocktail of ideas. Broad-stroke symbolism and delicately shaded realism are swished together with admirable aplomb. Currie's skills are equal to just about any technical challenge. [His] stoic poignancy [is] reminiscent of Raymond Carver. . . . The naturalistic texture of Currie's prose gives everything a scary ring of truth."
--Michel Faber, The Guardian (London)

"In Currie's stories we come to know God as a feral dog and a genocide victim and Colin Powell as a foul-mouthed race warrior. It's not clear which is a greater leap of faith but this brillaiant, absurdist fiction lets us embrace them both with a shiver of empthay. I for one would be a happier camper, as the sun sets on the American empire, if more of my own contrymen wrote like Ron Currie."
--Lydia Millet, author of Oh Pure and Radiant Heart