The Occidental Book of the Dead

*** TIME, Most Anticipated Books of 2026 ***

THE WIRE MEETS COLSON WHITEHEAD IN THIS AUDACIOUS, DARKLY FUNNY AND DAZZLINGLY LITERARY CRIME MASTERPIECE

'Endlessly entertaining'
Attica Locke, author of Bluebird, Bluebird

'Spellbinding and profanely funny'
Publishers Weekly

'Johnson asks big questions about identity, corruption and American ideals'
TIME, Most Anticipated Books of 2026

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George Washington Jonson has been in the Atlanta police force for a decade, patrolling the streets he grew up on and managing to build relationships within the force - especially with Tucker, the veteran police officer and self-described 'redneck' who taught Jonson the ropes.

Now it's 2005 and Jonson himself is tasked with training hot-headed rookie recruits. One night out on patrol with his trainee, Utner, a split-second confrontation with a white teenager takes a violent turn and Utner shoots the teenager dead. As the resulting furor mounts to a fever pitch, it threatens to expose the complex nest of lies that seethes beneath the entire city, and order must be restored.

So far, so Hollywood.

But then a dizzying somersault in the novel's structure upends the narrative and begins an even darker, more complicated and provocative story about racism, power and corruption - building to an unforgettable portrait of a nation divided.

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PRAISE FOR THE OCCIDENTAL BOOK OF THE DEAD . . .

'In T. Geronimo Johnson's Atlanta, racial tensions percolate and the system rarely bends to demands for justice. The author explores the moral calculus of a Black cop who's implicated in the killing of a white teenager. In a narrative that unfolds over two decades, Johnson asks big questions about identity, corruption, and American ideals' TIME, Most Anticipated Books of 2026

'Johnson's take on history, his political commentary, and humor read like jazz, as, with this book in particular, he plays with the novel as a form, bending notes, making new music' Attica Locke, New York Times bestselling author of Bluebird, Bluebird

'Wildly unpredictable ... emotionally charged ... often surprising' Booklist

'Johnson's hefty, free-wheeling, sharp-witted, disquieting third novel has a complexity that belies its straightforward premise ... a swing-for-the-fences novel, both a gripping procedural and high literary study of American bigotry' Kirkus

'Nothing is what it seems in this spellbinding and profanely funny novel about race, police violence, and distorted narratives ... the author thrillingly plays on expectations of a sympathetic main character and a story of vindication by keeping the reader guessing at the truth and the nature of his protagonist' Publishers Weekly