The Dead Do Not Improve: A Novel

Loopy, hilarious, neo-noon novel… an extremely smart, funny debut, with moments of haunting beauty.” —Boston GlobeExceedingly unique, pulsing with vigor and heart, and loaded with fierce, fresh language, The Dead Do Not Improve confirms Jay Caspian Kang as a true American original.

When struggling writer Philip Kim is dragged into a complex mystery after his neighbor is murdered, Sid Finch, a homicide detective bitter about everything except his gorgeous wife, and his phlegmatic, pockmarked partner, Jim Kim, land the case.

Philip becomes the baffled focus of an elaborate, violent scheme that seems tied to his neighbor'’s murder, and the cops think he might be involved.

With an intelligent narrative voice that moves effortlessly between hilarity, satire, poignancy, and madcap digressions, Kang has written a trippy, self-awared novel obsessed with the Virginia Tech massacre, surfing, and identity.