A Death in the Family

Summary

Set in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1915, the novel centers on a young boy and his extended family in the days surrounding the sudden death of his father in a car accident. Agee writes in lyrical, closely observed prose, alternating among family members to register grief as it ripples through ordinary domestic routines. The book's posthumous publication and its frame fragment "Knoxville: Summer, 1915" have made it a touchstone of American autobiographical fiction.