Unclay

the long version

"First published in 1931, the spellbinding novel Unclay glows with an unworldly light. Death has come to the small village of Dodder to deliver a parchment with the names of two local mortals and the fatal word unclay upon it. When he loses the precious sheet, he is at a loss, and also free of his errand. Hungry to taste the sweet fruits of human life, Mr. John Death, as he is now known, takes a holiday in Dorsetshire and rests from his reaping. The startlingly alive natural world basks in summer loveliness, but the village teems with the old sins (lust, avarice, greed)--as well as some loving-kindness. What unfolds is a witty, earthy, metaphysical, and delicious novel of astonishing beauty and moral force"--