The Sea Gives Up the Dead

March 1, 2025
Death is only one of many transformations in this enchanting debut story collection, which won the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction. Olgu�n's characters shed their genders; they anglicize their names; they ascend to sainthood; they yearn to leave their human bodies behind, metamorphosing into mermaids. The book's opening story announces this theme: "Here is the truth: everyone has but a single death to give to God...This is also the truth: Roque Contreras and his family died seven times in three years, with only one grave to show for it." Here, as in many of the other stories, some of these transformations defy human reason. After Roque's son is hit by a car and everyone is certain the boy is dead, he manages to peel himself off the pavement and return home, more worried about the damage to his beloved bicycle than his body. Other transformations, though less permanent than death, are no less profound, as in the deeply affecting "The Sea Gives Up the Dead," a story set in the aftermath of World War II about a mother traveling to France to say goodbye to her dead son, only to get a second chance to see him if she is willing to let go of her idea of who he should be. Throughout, Olgu�n brilliantly queers more traditional tales and the conventional roles that women often play in fiction. The price of consummated desire is not death for the women in "The Princess Wants for Company," and in the standout, "The Undertaker's Dogs," the protagonist's reluctance to mother her boyfriend's dog's fragile puppies seems entirely sensible. Though a few pieces fall short, Olgu�n is a transporting writer whose stories are gripping from the opening sentences to the last lines. Stories that affirm the value of truly being alive.

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