The Celebrants audiobook cover - Six college friends make a pact to hold “living funerals” so no one dies with love left unsaid—but decades later, when real grief arrives, the ritual that once saved them becomes the only way to face goodbye.

The Celebrants

Six college friends make a pact to hold “living funerals” so no one dies with love left unsaid—but decades later, when real grief arrives, the ritual that once saved them becomes the only way to face goodbye.

Steven Rowley

★ 4.5 / 5(408 ratings)
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Categories:
FictionSociety & CultureBiography & Memoir

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Chapter Overview

Description

The Celebrants follows a tight-knit group of Berkeley friends who, after the sudden death of their charismatic friend Alec in 1995, create a lifelong pact: whenever one of them hits rock bottom, the others will gather and throw that person a “living funeral.” The goal is simple—say the words you usually save for too late.

Over the years, the pact is invoked in moments of divorce, family tragedy, prison, and reinvention. But when Jordan Vargas’s cancer returns and becomes terminal, the friends reunite in Big Sur and confront what the pact was always trying to prepare them for: not just surviving breakdowns, but learning how to celebrate an ending while the person is still here.

Who Should Listen

  • Listeners who love ensemble, friendship-driven stories about aging, grief, and chosen family.
  • Fans of heartfelt dramedy with sharp dialogue and emotional catharsis (in the vein of character-centered literary fiction).
  • Readers interested in stories about queer love, lifelong friendship, and how rituals can hold people together through loss.

About the Authors

Steven Rowley is a bestselling novelist whose works include Lily and the Octopus, The Editor, and The Guncle. His fiction has been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in Palm Springs, California.