I gave birth to my infinite being,
but I had to wrench myself out of me with forceps.

—Fernando Pessoa

For the soul is a wanderer
with many hands and feet.

— Joy Harjo

What the Dead Can Say tells the story of Jenny Wood, the ghost of a three-year-old child who develops, early in her afterlife, the ability to absorb and share memories with other ghosts. This sets Jenny on an unlikely adventure of finding herself among the multiple selves that accumulate within her.

Jenny may be an unusual ghost, yet how different is she from us, the living? How many others inhabit us, our memories of them circling within our secret interiors?

Originally, What the Dead Can Say lived an analog life—a limited edition of 1,000 print copies launched in June 2023. Then, over the span of five months, the vast majority of this print run was hand-delivered by Author Unseen to Little Free Libraries in 28 states—blue and red—across our geographically and culturally diverse country. The journey took just over 10,000 miles.

With a design that included no blurbs, no author description, no front flap synopsis of the novel's content, no author's name to be found anywhere (except "Author Unseen" on the title page), What the Dead Can Say was intended to look like no other book. A mystery to be discovered (though not solved), as these readers in California, Oregon, and New Hampshire have attested.

On the off-chance that you did not happen upon a copy of What the Dead Can Say in your local Little Free Library, this expanded digital edition is especially for you.

How so, expanded? The digital version contains bonus content not found in the print edition:

  • Two extra "final" chapters, soon to be added, take Jenny's journey far into the future.
  • A section titled "What Jenny Could Have Said (but didn't)" appears at the end of each chapter and explores narrative paths that Jenny or her other ghosts might have taken, and other secrets Jenny might have revealed. Altogether, the two extra chapters and the "What Jenny Could Have Said (but didn't)" sections of this digital edition add 80 pages to the original 353 pages of the print edition of the novel.
  • Each chapter of the novel's digital version is accompanied by evocative line drawings by the artist Emily K Mell.
  • All chapters are accompanied by a brief audio excerpt, read by a contemporary fiction or nonfiction writer, poet, or playwright. These are archived on the Jennyverse Chorus page.
  • In addition, the newly added Press & Praise page shares the on-going critical reaction to What the Dead Can Say.

You'll get access to everything if you sign up for the full digital version.

Right now, you have free access to the first three chapters of What the Dead Can Say. For the modest price of $20, you'll get full access to all of the novel's chapters—along with the bonus content. Everything that's been published so far. And those two bonus chapters still to come.

You'll also receive a (very brief!) email newsletter announcing the arrival of those forthcoming bonus chapters.

Your support makes this site possible and allows What the Dead Can Say to extend its afterlife.

Jenny and her ghosts thank you.