Here Lies

by Olivia Clare Friedman

A visceral and portentous look at mourning, memory, and motherhood in an alternate Louisiana ravaged by climate change.

Louisiana, 2042. Spurred by the effects of climate change, states have closed graveyards and banned burials, making cremation mandatory and the ashes of loved ones state-owned unless otherwise claimed. In the small town of St. Genevieve, Alma lives alone and struggles to grieve in the wake of her young mother Naomi's death, during which Alma failed to honor Naomi's final wishes. Now, Alma decides to fight to reclaim Naomi's ashes, a journey of unburial that will bring into her life a mysterious and fiercely loyal stranger, Bordelon, who appears in St. Genevieve after a storm, as well as a group of strong, rebellious local women who, together, teach Alma anew the meaning of family and strength.

Genres: Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Book Club, Adult, Literary Fiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 2022

About the author

Olivia Clare Friedman is the author of three books: HERE LIES, a novel from Grove Atlantic, DISASTERS IN THE FIRST WORLD (short stories), and THE 26-HOUR DAY (poems). Her stories have been published in The Paris Review, Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The Southern Review, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Southern Review, Denver Quarterly, and other journals. She is the recipient of an O. Henry Prize (fiction), a Pushcart Prize (fiction), a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award (fiction), and a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. She is currently an Assistant Professor in English, Creative Writing, at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Reviews

[Timea Sipos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book! I love strong female friendships, and we get so few of them in literature! Here, a tight female bond is part of what starts us off and what keeps these characters chugging along. The language here is absolutely stunning. It's unique to the South and full of flavor. I gulped it all up in just a few days!

[Lara Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to love this bc I’m a sucker for anything related to cemeteries and burial but it just… didn’t make sense. Burial is outlawed and that’s somehow related to climate change but why?? How?? I kept waiting for the fundamental premise of this book to be explained but Friedman (rather boldly) took a poorly thought out, if intrinsically interesting, concept and just ran with it unquestioned for 160 pages. So we had some nice female friendship along the way but even that was pretty mediocre.

Potentially interesting themes I thought could’ve been explored here: the rights and values of the dead vs those of the grieving vs those of the otherwise living; how cemeteries can stake a claim to public green space in an era of rapid development; the interface between public religion and death practices and norms; what it means to bury a body in a place and, in turn, establish a communal throughline in that place when that place may be flooded or otherwise uninhabitable within a decade. Interesting themes that Friedman chose to explore with her concept: literally none of these :(

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars! Thank you PGC for a copy of the book!

This book is a quick read about life, choice, and the connections we make to other human beings. I really wish it was longer though so we can get more a sense of these characters and their journey, but I can appreciate what this book does :)

[ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I think this was one of the fastest books I've read recently. And I regret having read it so quickly, because I don't know if I managed to absorb it all.

So I didn't really understand why the burials were prohibited, I think the explanation was a little vague. And since that was the key point of the plot, it ended up making the whole story a little vague too.

However, this ends up being offset by the depth of the characters, the mourning and grief, and the strength we need when one of our important and essential right is taken away from us. It made me angry to see how indifferent Alma was treated, as if she and her mother weren't human beings.

Here Lies is the debut novel by author Olivia Clare Friedman and it didn't disappoint me. I definitely recommend it and I will also look foward to her upcoming releases.

[Jannath Fazli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alma's mother wanted to be buried after death, but the government has made burials illegal (due to climate change? Doesn't make sense, anyway), but Alma is guilty she couldn't fulfil her mother's wish and is attempting to claim her ashes so that she can at least bury that. That's the story.

The prose had lots of potential but that was it. The whole concept of burials being harmful for the planet was poorly researched because guess what? Burying a dead body is the healthiest and easiest way to deal with it. Cremation takes too much energy and causes pollution too, so yeah, the very base of the book doesn't make any sense. It still baffles me. Besides, the world is said to be suffering from extreme effects of climate change and yet, none of the characters even bother to not waste water??! Like, WHAT? Or even cut down fuel consumption?

The characters seemed shallow and superficial to me. There were too many references (I suppose they're pop culture references?) used to make up the characters' personality that I absolutely didn't get (being non-American). I feel disappointed about this because like I said, the prose was nice to read most of the time, but it didn't matter because there was no connection between the plot, the characters and the environment.

I'm grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the eARC.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

HERE LIES is a stellar new novel. Entrancingly written, full of lyrical and delightfully sordid detail, it captivated me completely with its psychological insights, its story, its ambiance. The most satisfying reading experience I've had in years.

[Ness (Vynexa) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Grove Atlantic via Netgalley for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

The synopsis for this novel gripped me quickly as I was reading it. Which means that, naturally, I requested an advance reading copy.

When I started reading the ARC, I had a feeling I would love this story. Unfortunately, that was not what happened after reading 25% of it.

This is a poetically written story about the future, 2024 to be exact, where it has become illegal to bury the dead. The reason is due to climate change, where it rains so much, the dead rise with the water levels, causing them to go along with currents.

We are following Alma whose mother just passed away from ovarian cancer and she is trying everything in her power to retrieve her mother's ashes from the State. Durning that journey she meets a stranger to town and immediately they connect.

As I mentioned in the beginning of the review, this story is poetic. It includes beautiful lines, of which many I annotated, along with metaphors. Which makes sense to me as the author is a poet, or at least has published a poetry collection prior to this novel.
While beautiful, after a while, it started to feel like too much. There were points where I didn't know if the character(s) were actually doing something or if it was metaphorically added there, but a different action was taking place.

This is a quick read, but keep in mind that there is mentions of losing a parent/parental figure, talks about religion (mostly Catholic) and mentions of domestic violence sprinkled along the text.

I don't think that this will be a story for everyone, but I know there will be many who will love it.

⭐️3 STARS⭐️

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Friedman is a good writer. I'd gladly give her another chance. But the premise of this book was entirely unserious. Outlawing burial would do nothing to ameliorate climate change, and while the government would do something ceremonial, this would make everybody angry. Every time I got emotionally involved in the characters, the dumb premise would pop up and came off with a slimy sort of libertarian streak when it did. This book is not set in the future like it says. I wish she had taken these characters, and figured out what she wanted to say in the present.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful language and deeply felt characters. Even though I didn't buy into a couple of fundamental conceits of this novel (around illegal burials/ashes and a future setting that didn't feel even a smidgeon futuristic), I still really enjoyed reading it. Friedman's writing is sumptuous and she wrangles a lot of tension and drama from her characters out of pure restlessness ... and just enough recklessness, to boot.

[Leighann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this story - I felt at home in this place and with these characters immediately. As a couple other reviews noted, the setting feels pretty present day and doesn’t distinguish itself as 20 years in the future through anything other than the new laws around burials; I wanted to know more about how that came about and a fuller imagining of this future, but the focus is really about these women and their journey. 4.5 stars from me I think, rounded up.

[k r e e t i k a ~` · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here lies, a story of future that has the power to shook you to the core. It is 2040, & you can not lie in peace after death. Because of climatic changes & global warming, burial was illegal. Govt take the deceased body after a phone call and cremate it themself keeping the ashes. There is a lot of rules and regulations for getting back the ashes and chances of getting it is 10% out of 100.

The story starts with Our protagonist searching in internet for a legal method for getting the remaining back. Her mother died few months ago, she wanted her body to be in the backyard. She never wanted to be in the hands of Govt, so what did Alma do?

She was lost after her mother's death, but her mother's will keep her going. She met someone just like her, she talked and reached out to people for her goal, but did she manage?

I truly love this one but there are some parts where i just skimmed it. Definitely a recommended one if you want to go for a quick read.

[Darlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off thank you Goodreads for this giveaway win.

This book was different. It is the year 2042 and America is no longer allowed to bury people and everyone is cremated because there is no more room to bury them. Its against the law to bury them in your own yard even. It's about a young girl wishing to get her Mother's ashes back from the government and the people she finds along the way when she thought she had no one left.
First off it made me think how sad it would be if that ever became true that we could never bury our own and all ashes went to the Government. Second, even when we think we are alone people come into our lives when we need them the most. We are never truly alone. Family does not always have to be blood. That I have always believed.
Its a fast read. One that makes you think about the future and what it might be like for our kids one day.

[Becky Robison · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dear friend Olivia published her debut novel this year. And it takes place in Louisiana—so of course I took it with me on my trip to New Orleans! It tells the story of Alma, a young woman whose mother recently passed—and in this near-future world ravaged by climate change, the government mandates cremation. Determined to bury her mother’s remains, Alma encounters another lost girl, Bordelon, and together they find a way to move forward. I can’t decide if this novel is more like a poem or an extended short story. I suppose it reads like an extended short story, but has the resonance and lyricism of a poem. It tastes like beer and gas station snacks, and smells like a garden after the rain. It feels like love. I recommend it.

This review was originally published on my blog.

[Grace Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book brought me a very warm feeling. For the first time reading a book about Louisiana, even dystopian Louisiana, I felt seen. I loved all the references to things that I knew and places that were familiar to me. It didn’t feel like someone was writing about the Louisiana experience from looking in, but someone who had actually experienced it. I’m already recommending this book to everyone I know because of how this book made me feel.

[Miranda Hale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this on one of my trips to see Kirsten in New Orleans! I really appreciated a lot of things about this book, and found it to be an interesting example of pandemic-era literature, but I wish it had gone deeper. I wanted the book to more fully grapple with how our relationship with death and mourning has, and may continue to, change alongside the changes facing our world. As is, it’s interesting, but didn’t fully captivate me.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really interesting character study about female friendship and loss. I thought the premise was especially interesting and the prose was quite lovely. In some ways I wish it had been longer in order to better get to know the characters, but in other ways the length feels just right. It’s a pretty fast read, one I would recommend to fans of the quieter dystopian novels.

[Linda Conrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange, intriguing little book. Louisiana, 2042. A time when cremation is government mandated, and the ashes are state owned except under special circumstances. The story follows the connection and lives of two young women.
I liked it.

[Andria Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. A simple story about the intimacy of female friendship.

[Ann (Inky Labyrinth) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rows and rows of the dead, stored away, out of the sight of the living, and as quiet as the grave. But there were no graves. There were not even names.

A story of grief and female friendship set in an alt-future Louisiana where the government has made burying bodies illegal and cremation is mandatory. Soon, even funerals may be outlawed.

This hidden gem is less about living in a dystopian society and more about found family and finding a way to heal no matter where you find yourself.

It reminded me a lot of The Last Days of California, so I would recommend it to readers of Mary Miller and to anyone who likes quiet, cozy-ish dystopian fiction that is beautifully written.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Olivia Clare Friedman book I read. I didn’t know what to expect at first but it turn out pretty good. Two girls who have nothing becoming friends and being there for each no matter what. This book really represents no matter how hard life make be at the moment things will always get better eventually.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

HERE LIES by Olivia Clare Friedman is a great novel! I really enjoyed reading this moody book! It’s set in Louisiana, 2042, and follows Alma who’s grieving her mother’s death and meets a new friend, Bordelon. In this future everyone is cremated after they pass and Alma has to fight to reclaim her mother’s ashes. I absolutely loved the moody atmosphere in this book as Alma struggles to find her new community. I loved how this novel focuses on found family and female friendship. Alma and Boredelon develop a bond that I hope is everlasting. I found Alma very endearing and I wanted the best for her to find some connection and honour her mother. This is a short book (under 200 pages) that really transports you. Right away I was immersed in this future and transfixed by the complex character of Alma. I’m definitely interested to read Friedman’s other books now!
.
Thank you to PGC Books and Grove Press for my gifted review copy!

[Anais · Rating 5 out of 5]

21 years ahead from now, in 2042, life has completely changed on the planet. Climate change has made its ravages, the effects are catastrophic: waters are raising and lands are disappearing. Living conditions have regressed. Bodies can be buried anymore, to save living space. Alma, who has just lost her mother, feels lonelier than ever and is desperate to satisfy one of her mother's last wishes: be buried in the ground, return to the earth. Unfortunately, the state already cremated her, but maybe Alma can get the urn with the ashes back. Her fight will make her meet Bordelon, who will enter her life and they will both try to find their way out of this messy life.

This is a novel with a simple plot, with very few characters (two mains, two sides), but with a lot of emotions, highs, and downs, love and tears, sadness and joy. The narrow frame in which the characters evolve makes it easy to develop them, and for the reader to get to know them, to get intimate. This is a story about a quest, and we go along with Alma and Bordelon with our hearts.

I really enjoy stories like this where we don't get lost, where there is one goal, with some extensions, and we read our way through it. Maybe some will say that the whole situation on Earth is not explained enough, but I find it really comforting to focus on one single thing, to deep dive into one character and stay in this bubble.

Moreover, Alma and Bordelon are very endearing. They find themselves, and can't let go of each other. They are right together, and this is what helps them go through life.

The situation is kind of blurry, we are in a fog, we really only know the present. We don't know anything about Alma, except that she is in her twenties and without a job. Same for Bordelon. In some way, this is for us to focus only on the present, on what is happening, but it felt unsettling.

This book is for anyone who likes mindful stories, simple but deep ones, real-life fiction. This is neither historical fiction nor dystopic, it just is. If you like to be carried away in the character's life, that is for you.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for sharing a copy of this book with me in exchange for an honest review.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt this was an incredibly thought provoking and refreshing take on some of the intertwined environmental and social challenges caused by climate change. It hits the social and cultural settings perfectly. I loved this book, and I’m an environmental scientist living in Louisiana.

Which that said, I think the connection between burial and climate change, particularly in south Louisiana, deserves some more attention to help the reader make sense of it. Perhaps this could be achieved with some kind of a forward to the book, or a short opening chapter set in an earlier time that makes this stand out to those uninitiated to the particular environmental challenges along the Gulf Coast, and Louisiana in particular. Note that the major issues are mentioned on page 15, but I don’t think they stand out as well as they could. This is my only reason for docking a star; I would like to give this 4.5 stars.

In south Louisiana, land is at a premium. It is being lost to sea level rise and erosion at a rapid rate. Sea level rise also poses a risk that even covered burials may not remain in place, as the water table may rise to meet them, or storms may wash them up. Add land subsidence (a process in which former wetlands sink and becomes more compact) into the mix, and it is not hard to imaging land that is inhospitable to burying decomposing bodies. (The subsidence issue is cleverly referenced as Alma cannot break ground at her house.)

My assumption is that the author sees this land loss, and the tension over allocating increasingly scarce space among the dead and the living, as the reasons cremation is required. The argument is not that cremation is better for the environment, but rather that the government sees it as a necessary evil given the state of the environment in 2042. The additional prohibitions uncovered in the book speak to me as a sign of a government that has lost sight of the big picture while managing details (in survival mode rather than future planning mode), and has lost touch with the culture of its own people, which is particularly stark in a region with such a depth of culture.

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the type of story that makes you feel smart, and it’s only 200 pages so if you need to feel smart quickly just give this a go!

The language is easy to follow and I never felt lost. The “deeper meaning” was obvious in some places and not so obvious in others. By the end of it I sort of just shrugged my shoulders and went “okay, that’s finished.”

That’s me basically saying I didn’t feel like this was anything special. I enjoyed the reading, I loved Bordelon’s character, and the advancement of the government’s death laws were interesting to see. I just don’t feel different or moved by the end of it, is all.

Just an average read for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

[EMM · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a quick read with relevant connections to global warming and the future.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just won this book on the GoodReads giveaway page and I'm so excited to receive it in the mail! Can't wait to take a trip to 2042 and the future of possible afterlife situations that are discussed in the blurb on the website. Thanks for picking me as a winner

[KayG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, sad tale of the near future. Set in a Louisiana affected by climate change, it’s a look at what could be. I look forward to meeting the author at our Mississippi book club.

[Gabe Dinardi · Rating 2 out of 5]

severely lacking a plot. also i was really hoping for it to turn into like a slow burn lesbian relationship with the main characters but we didn’t even get that

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading climate change related novels for several years and also have written one. I've also enjoyed visits to New Orleans and its unique culture, so the premise of a book set here in the near future was intriguing.

This book is set in 2042 and the US government has created draconian rules which have reclaimed the land of cemeteries and banned burials altogether. This sounds a bit extreme, but okay, I went with it. Our protagonist, Alma Guidry, had lived with her mother but recently lost her after a long illness. Per the laws, she was cremated and the urn with the ashes was confiscated by the state. But Alma has heard it might be possible to reclaim an urn with ashes under certain conditions. Alma is poor and it's a struggle for her to even have a chance to get through the special rules for such a request. But libraries have free access to computers and Alma starts the research about the process. At her second floor seat, she shares computer space with a younger woman, Bordelon. In time, Alma finds that Bordelon is living in her car and Alma offers to share her space. Soon we discover that Bordelon is probably pregnant and the book sets off on dual quests -- for Alma to gain access to her mother's urn and Bordelon to deal with impending motherhood.

Along the way, Alma meets Josephine, who can notarize her request and seems to know a lot about these kinds of processes. As Alma meets more obstacles, Josephine invites her to join her in gardening and hints that there may be a way forward.

I'll stop talking about the plot here but the quests continue as the women take a road trip. I found the book to be okay and the characters were well described, but the combination of the unlikely premise and the struggles of all in the book to have much positive in their life was wearing on me as a reader. But, yes, this is another somewhat viable vision of climate change and certainly shows that the poorest of people and regions are likely to suffer the most. If you enjoy reading about characters who struggle versus near impossible odds and find a way forward, this book may be for you.

[Raiding Bookshelves · Rating 2 out of 5]

A future, far too easy to imagine, Here Lies, is a poignant insight into a future Louisiana ravaged by climate change where even the dead can’t lie in peace.

The effects of climate change have necessitated the closure of graveyard burials and mandated cremations. After the death of her mother, Alma is haunted by her failure to fufill her mother’s last wish to be buried in her own backyard.

Driven by the desire to reclaim her mother’s ashes, Alma begins a journey of unburial and with the help of a mysterious stranger and a group of local women, learns the meaning of family and strength.

What I liked: The concept of a future torn devastated by the consequences of global warming facing the reality of life and death.

The language was beautiful and prosiac. It flowed beautifully and carried me through the novel – it if wasn’t so beautifully formed, I don’t think I could have finished this story.

Read more at Raiding Bookshelves.