The Dead are Gods

Eirinie Carson

”…striking a deeply resonant chord for anyone who has experienced the obsessive self-searching that often accompanies a sudden loss.” — Oprah Daily

From an exciting new literary voice: a memoir that explores grief, Blackness, and recovery after the death of a dear friend.

After an unexpected phone call on an early morning in 2018, writer and model Eirinie Carson learned of her best friend Larissa’s death. In the wake of her shock, Eirinie attempts to make sense of the events leading up to Larissa’s death and uncovers startling secrets about her life in the process.

THE DEAD ARE GODS is Eirinie’s striking, intimate, and profoundly moving depiction of life after a sudden loss. Amid navigating moments of intense grief, Eirinie is overwhelmed by her love for Larissa. She finds power in pulling moments of joy from the depths of her emotion. Eirinie’s portrayal of what love feels like after death bursts from the page alongside a timely, honest, and personal exploration of Black love and Black life.

Perhaps, Eirinie proposes, “The only way out is through.”

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Eirinie Carson is a Black British writer, born to a Jamaican father and Scottish-ish mother and raised in South East London. Her work is published in the Sonora Review and she is a frequent contributor to Mother magazine. A member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto, Eirinie writes about motherhood, grief, and relationships. Eirinie lives in Northern California with her musician husband and their one dog and two daughters. The Dead are Gods is her first book.

”…striking a deeply resonant chord for anyone who has experienced the obsessive self-searching that often accompanies a sudden loss.” — Oprah Daily

”A deeply felt, searching examination of the feelings and memories provoked by the death of a best friend… Carson strikes a deeply resonant chord.” — Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW

”In the early stages of her grief, Carson’s language shines… The memoir ultimately asks us to explore secrets: those that our dearest loved ones keep from us—and the open secrets that are too frightening to acknowledge.” — Booklist

“The Dead Are Gods is brilliant and beautiful. It’s a love letter, a time capsule and a celebration of the friendships that shape and save us, again and again. It will also no doubt be a light in the dark for the many of us who must also figure out how to navigate grief and proximity to death. A stunning, stunning debut.” — Beth McColl, How to Come Alive Again: A Guide to Killing Your Monsters

”With ardor and honesty, Carson maps her grief to reckon with complex truths about friendship, including that you cannot fully know anyone no matter how much you care about them. Written with style and rich with powerful questions and abiding love, The Dead Are Gods will be familiar–and illuminating–to anyone who has grieved.” — Savala Nolan, Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender and the Body.

“The Dead Are Gods is a dazzling recreation of a cultural moment in time— the 2000s—one told from the perspective of a hip, young Black kid on a scene that was abundantly white.” — Roberto Lovato, author, Unforgetting

“In Eirinie Carson’s beautiful ode to her best friend, she shows that love surpasses death. I witnessed the birth of a relationship between two Black women who created and found homes in each other as they navigated the whiteness of alternative rock and modeling spaces in London.” –– Taylor Crumpton, cultural critic and journalist