“Bent at the feet of an avenging Christ full of judgement and fury, they point their Bibles like guns. They talk of lost souls, but they crave blood and guts. Invested with a divine authority that they insist comes from God, they speak in strange tongues, a kind of supernatural language that only the chosen can understand.”

I was not expecting any of this from Ana Paula Maia, and I’m leaving this book incredibly pleased and surprised by what I found. Bury Your Dead is incredibly well written, surprisingly funny at times, and takes such a unique approach to some very sensitive and gruesome topics without ever feeling like the horror is there simply for shock value. The characters are compelling and complex, the story is strange in the best way, and somehow this became one of the most quotable books I’ve read in a long time.

At the center of it all is a question I couldn’t stop thinking about, what do we owe to a life once it’s no longer useful to us? Maia exaggerates horror and disgust in a way that forces us to look at the violence already contained within everyday life. The things and people we decide are disposable, the bodies we would rather not see, and how easy it is to simply look away. I also loved the role religion plays throughout the story, especially in questioning how we discern what is good or bad and how those ideas don’t always align with what is actually being preached or practiced. It never feels like the book is giving you a simple answer either. It just puts morality, faith, and human behavior beside each other and lets you see all the contradictions.

And then there’s Edgar. He knows he can’t do much about the world around him or all the terrible things happening within it, but he can always bury the dead. There’s something strangely hopeful about the idea that sometimes you cannot change the entire system, but you can still choose not to participate in its indifference. Such a weird, gruesome, thoughtful little book, and one that has definitely made me want to get into more of Maia’s writing.

Thanks to NetGalley and Charco Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.50⭐️

This was bleak, gritty and very atmospheric. The world building was so well done, and the sense of hopelessness and despair was strong. Witnessing Edgar and Tomas strive to be good and respectful in such desperate times was so compelling that I devoured this.

I would highly recommend this quick, gruesome and introspective read.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC provided in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this one. I’ve read all of Ana Paula Maia’s books so far, and Bury Your Dead really pulled me in from the very beginning.

We’re dropped straight into the story alongside the main character, with very little hand-holding, and I loved that. Maia’s writing is sharp and cold, yet somehow manages to create so much depth and nuance in the characters, setting, and story. There’s something incredibly compelling about the way she can say so much with so little.

What stayed with me most was the way the protagonist’s work; clearing animal carcasses from the roads which slowly connects to what he encounters and becomes involved with later in the story. It creates this fascinating examination of the value we place on animal versus human life. If we put animals and humans on the same scale and treat their lives as equally valuable, what does that say about us? Are we truly superior, or are we simply higher on the food chain?

It’s a short book, and honestly, I wish it had been longer. I could have spent much more time in this world and with these characters.

Another fantastic addition to Ana Paula Maia’s work, and I’ll happily continue reading whatever she writes next.

Another amazing book from Ana Paula Mais to complete her trilogy. It was fantastic to see Edgar Wilson reappear even if he is unable to get away from jobs that centre around death. The writing again is sparse yet vivid and vicious and the themes of death are explored extremely well. I have a full review of this on my TikTok helenfoz

I liked Ana Paula Maia’s book “On Earth as it is Beneath,” shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize, but “Bury Your Dead” is on another level — an absolute revelation.

The story follows Edgar Wilson and Tomás, two workers who pick up roadkill from the street and feed it into a giant grinder. They find several human bodies and find themselves fruitlessly attempting to offer some final shred of dignity to these unknown bodies by having them buried.

A deceptively simple story, this book exposes the undercurrents of violence that lie beneath the surface and those who bear witness to it. The role of religion, state institutions, and exploitative industries are all key themes running throughout the book. The author’s ability to portray death — of animals, humans and the environment — as something both brutal and banal is masterfully done.

I cannot recommend this book more highly and am sure that it will haunt my thoughts for a long time to come.

We get to see and learn what is the value between Human and Animal. Edgar and Tomás work as clearing dead animals from the highways in the backlands of Brazil. Death surrounds them constantly. Things get different when they discover an abandoned human body and refuse to let the body be treated as trash and we go along in the journey of how they try to find a resting place for the dead.
Thank you NetGalley, Charco Press for the free ARC provided in exchange for my honest review.

thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

ana paula maia is back again in a newly translated edition of "bury your dead." following the story of edgar wilson as he does his best to keep quiet and do his job as a roadkill collector now faced with the jarring reality of what value the dead have and who sets the price: god or man. under a never ending stream of bodies with an excommunicated priest as his partner, edgar is faced with a rising tide of corpses with no place to go and people he's been denied the right to save.

as always, maia's writing is heavy with grief, gore, and abject horror that feels far closer to reality than fiction. while her characters often reappear across her novels, "bury your dead," "of cattle and men," and "on earth as it is beneath" can all be read as stand alones (and i suspect the same goes for the books yet to be translated.) the religious bigotry and grief compounding in this novel alongside the roadkill's ever increasing value versus the decreasing value of the human dead makes for a shocking blanket of weight as you read. with so little options and egdar's shaken faith in earth, the novel somehow never leans into helplessness. another wonderful read from maia. i can't wait for the rest of the saga of brutes to be translated!

Thanks to NetGalley and Charco Press for the advanced copy of the book.

I was curious to read Ana Paula Maia since she seemed to be someone that could be in my list of favorites. I wasn't wrong, so thankfully, I got the opportunity to read it!

"Every animal has an innate fear of its own destruction. Edgar's fear goes further: it's the fear of being devoured by vultures, eaten out in the open by maggots, having his flesh exposed and shamed."

Edgar and Tomas are quite different characters, but they compliment each other. For me, it felt like Edgar was the one who was down to earth and Tomas, because of its spiruality seeking, he was the one who gave Edgar some ethics around his job and what he could find on the streets in a world that's hostile to everyone. The world around them is gritty, dark and unkind. Their mind is fractured by the dead, specially Edgar who sees the dead and survives around it since he had conscience.

That point is remarked by this quote:
"For Tomas, what matters is the soul, while Edgar is concerned with the carcass, just like the vultures."

In the end, they do have each other to believe in them. To guard them. To seek help. And even through this gritty, distopic and dark world, even if they don't believe in themselves—they do believe in each other.

This book has just joined a very small list of books that will live rent free in my brain indefinitely, sitting alongside books like Augustina Bazterrica's The Unworthy and Claudia Piñeiro's Cathedrals. Bury Your Dead fits in with Ana Paula Maia's other books, Of Cattle and Men and On Earth as It Is Beneath, but can also be read as a standalone (which is how I read it).

Edgar Wilson is one of the most compelling male voices I've ever read, which is interesting given that Ana Paula Maia has talked about the fact that she only writes male voices, as it's her only opportunity to live in a male consciousness. His conscience propels this story forward into deeply interesting territory, discussing themes of which lives are valuable and who does that valuation; and his confusion that the people around him don't share his concerns, aside from disgraced priest Tomas, will break your heart, as he slowly comes to the realization that the end stages of capitalism are conferring this last great indignity on humanity. 

The end scene left me reeling, and desperate to discuss this book with literally everyone. If you liked Tender is the Flesh, but wanted a main character you actually were rooting for, this is for you. 

I cannot overstate my love of this book, and the incisive prose and the pin point focus of the themes of this book honestly make it an instant classic in my mind. Thank you to Charco Press and Netgalley for an advance english copy in exchange for my honest review. Ana Paula Maia has a new fan.