Death Has Come Up into Our Windows (The Zombie Bible)

Stant Litore’s The Zombie Bible retells biblical tales and ancient history as episodes in humanity’s long struggle with hunger … and with the hungry dead.

God is weeping behind her veil in the Temple while the dead are eating her city alive, and her words are coming out through the mouth of her prophet Yirmiyahu. The king and the priesthood don’t like what he has to say, so they’ve thrown Yirmiyahu down a dry well, and once a day, his gaolers toss a zombie in after him. During the three days of this story, the prophet will have to fight to survive the hungry dead, dehydration, and some truly wrenching memories -- memories of atrocities witnessed, lives lost, and sacrifices that shatter the heart.

Zombies are a powerfully resilient metaphor, able to absorb both horrifying bodily damage and whatever widespread cultural fears abide in the times of their creator or their setting, especially with regard to their origin stories. George Romero's "Living Dead" arose at the peak of the Cold War, animated by the same rampant radioactivity that struck deep fears in the American collective consciousness. In the film adaptation of I Am Legend (2007), "the infected" suffered a would-be cancer cure gone awfully awry. The list goes on and on. In Stant Litore's novella, the biblical prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) warns the people of Jerusalem of the dangers of worshiping false gods while the city suffers the twin trials of zombie infestation from within and Babylonian siege from without. It's a wildly original tale: beautiful, terrifying, and deeply reverent. Racked by his divine calling, Litore's Jeremiah embodies the ambivalent prophet's existential anguish with memorable resonance. As such, Death Has Come Up into Our Windows is not only a great zombie yarn, it's also the most imaginative take on Jeremiah's story since Edward Snow's 1987 translation of the Rainer Maria Rilke poem that bears the prophet's name. Highly recommended. --Jason Kirk

Stant Litore’s The Zombie Bible retells biblical tales and ancient history as episodes in humanity’s long struggle with hunger … and with the hungry dead.

God is weeping behind her veil in the Temple while the dead are eating her city alive, and her words are coming out through the mouth of her prophet Yirmiyahu. The king and the priesthood don’t like what he has to say, so they’ve thrown Yirmiyahu down a dry well, and once a day, his gaolers toss a zombie in after him. During the three days of this story, the prophet will have to fight to survive the hungry dead, dehydration, and some truly wrenching memories -- memories of atrocities witnessed, lives lost, and sacrifices that shatter the heart.