God Is Dead, Ron Currie
God Is Dead, Ron Currie
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God Is Dead

Author: Ron Currie

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

Unabridged: 5 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 08/19/2025

Synopsis

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.

About The Author

Ron Currie is the author of the forethcoming The One-Eyed Man and the novels Everything Matters!, Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles and the short story collection God Is Dead, which was the winner of the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award. Currie received the Addison M. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His books have been translated into fifteen languages. He lives in Portland, Maine.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Paul on June 01, 2010

Well this is a tough review to write because this is Ron Currie's first book and I wish him well. And I really wanted to like this one a lot - you know when you get good vibes from a book as soon as you hear about it. And it isn't bad. But I just didn't really get where Ron Currie was coming from. T......more

Goodreads review by Michael on August 23, 2007

Whaapow! Jealous and inspired. The book starts out phenomenally and then just gets better and better. It’s like watching someone tiptoe out onto a frozen pond, then slowly gain confidence, and soon he’s jumping up and down, trying as hard as he can to smash his safety, inviting his friends out there......more

Goodreads review by Miss Michael on July 07, 2008

First, you have to assume that God exists. Then, you have to assume that it would be possible for him to die. I can do these things. Willing suspension of disbelief and all that. However, that didn't stop the book from reading a little like a writing exercise, more for the benefit of the author than......more

Goodreads review by Mon on September 17, 2010

God is Dead is technically a collection of short stories loosely spanned over a period of several decades after God's death as a mortal on Earth. Its format becomes the greatest challenge, you never quite know what's happening and at what point you're in terms of the overall 'plot'. Except for the......more

Goodreads review by Nick on February 13, 2026

Generally it was a bit on-the-nose for me. But I liked the section about the murder with the statue of the Virgin Mary and the section about society switching to worship children in the wake of God's death. The latter of those two was a particularly sharp and bitter observation that has aged especia......more

Quotes

"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  

Awards

  • New York Public Library's Young Lion Fiction Award
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