If the Dead Belong Here // A Novel

Fierce, lyrical, and unrelentingly intimate . . . This is a story about hauntings both literal and inherited, a child gone missing, and the women who carry everything that came before. Faust doesnt just bend formhe breaks it open. Morgan Talty, national bestselling author ofNight of the Living Rez

When a young girl goes missing, the ghosts of the past collide with her familys secrets in a mesmerizing Native American Southern Gothic

When six-year-old Laurel Taylor vanishes without a trace, her family is left shattered, struggling to navigate the darkness of grief and unanswered questions. As their search turns to despair, Laurels older sister, Nadine, begins experiencing nightmares that blur the line between dream and reality, and she becomes convinced that Laurels disappearance could be connected to other family tragedies. Guided by her elders, Nadine sets out to uncover whether laying the ghosts to rest is the key to finding her sister and healing her fractured family.

Carson Faust captivates in this chilling literary debut that confronts the specter of colonization and the generational scars it leaves on Native American families. Steeped in Indigenous folklore and drawing from the authors own family history,If the Dead Belong Hereexamines what it means to be hauntedboth by the supernatural and by terrors of our own making. Faust crafts a powerful, kaleidoscopic tale about the complicated legacies of violence that shape our present, the importance of honoring our past, and the resilience of a familyand a peopledetermined to heal from old wounds.

Carson Faustis two-spirit and an enrolled member of the Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of South Carolina. He is the recipient of fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and the Jerome Foundation.His fiction has appeared inNever Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology. He lives in Minnesota.

• Publisher: Viking
• Publish Date: October 07, 2025
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• Type: Hardcover
• EAN/UPC: 9780593830895
• Dimensions: 9.3 X 6.3 X 1.3 inches | 1.2 pounds
• BISAC Categories: Literary Fiction, Horror, Mystery