The Gravedigger

Set in a small Spanish village, this charming, magical, first novel by Peter Grandbois tells the story ofthe town's gravedigger, a man who has the ability to bridge the worlds of the living and the dead.Having inherited the job from his father, Juan Rodrigo listens to the spirits of the recently deceased asthey tell their life stories--stories that often reveal far more than is known by those still alive. It's Don Rodrigo's duty to relay these accounts from one world to the next, and though the details thataren't always well received, he is a respected member of the community encouraging people toaccept and to forgive. He is also raising his own daughter, on the brink of adulthood, who falls in lovewith a boy her father doesn't approve of. Combining magic realism, ribald frolics, and flights of fancy,The Gravedigger is a heart-warming tale of lives, deaths, and love.

Peter Grandbois lives in Davis, California, and is a professor of Creative Writing and Contemporary Literature at Sacramento State University. This is his first novel.