Iris and the Dead

Iris and the Dead is ahaunting exploration of love and desire, madness and recovery that asks: What if you could look back and tell someone exactly how they changed the course of your life?

For our narrator, that someone is Iris, the counsellor with whom she developed an unusual, almost violent bond. There are things she needs to tell Iris: some that she hid during the brief time they knew each other and some that she has learned since. She was missing her mind the autumn they spent together and has since regained it.

Weaving personal memory with magic realism and folklore, Iris and the Dead unfurls the hidden power dynamics of abuse, offering a beguiling inquiry into intergenerational trauma, moral ambiguity, and queer identity.

MIRANDA SCHREIBER is a Toronto-based writer and researcher. Her writing has appeared in places like The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, BBC, The Toronto Star, and The National Post. She has been nominated for a digital publishing award by the National Media Foundation and was the recipient of the Pride and Solidarity Award from the Ontario Federation of Labour. Iris and the Dead is her debut book.

ISBN: 9781771669290
Format: Paperback
Pages: 150
Publisher: Book*hug Press
Published: June 10, 2025

“Breathless, eerie, and experimental, Iris and the Dead rejects the redemptive trajectory of mental health recovery autofiction and instead passes the mic to the ghosts, asking: if your treatment-resistant depression could write its own spiritual autobiography, what would it say? Golems, ancestors, lovers, and psychiatrists are part of the chorus. A penetrating queer story that refuses to settle or resolve its lessons, choosing instead the greatest gift: transformation.” —Alex Leslie, author of We All Need to Eat“Breathless, eerie, and experimental, Iris and the Dead rejects the redemptive trajectory of mental health recovery autofiction and instead passes the mic to the ghosts, asking: if your treatment-resistant depression could write its own spiritual autobiography, what would it say? Golems, ancestors, lovers, and psychiatrists are part of the chorus. A penetrating queer story that refuses to settle or resolve its lessons, choosing instead the greatest gift: transformation.” —Alex Leslie, author of We All Need to Eat“Breathless, eerie, and experimental, Iris and the Dead rejects the redemptive trajectory of mental health recovery autofiction and instead passes the mic to the ghosts, asking: If your treatment-resistant depression could write its own spiritual autobiography, what would it say? Golems, ancestors, lovers, and psychiatrists are part of the chorus. A penetrating queer story that refuses to settle or resolve its lessons, choosing instead the greatest gift: transformation.” —Alex Leslie, author of We All Need to Eat“Breathless, eerie, and experimental, Iris and the Dead rejects the redemptive trajectory of mental health recovery autofiction and instead passes the mic to the ghosts, asking: if your treatment-resistant depression could write its own spiritual autobiography, what would it say? Golems, ancestors, lovers, and psychiatrists are part of the chorus. A penetrating queer story that refuses to settle or resolve its lessons, choosing instead the greatest gift: transformation.” —Alex Leslie, author of We All Need to Eat“Breathless, eerie, and experimental, Iris and the Dead rejects the redemptive trajectory of mental health recovery autofiction and instead passes the mic to the ghosts, asking: if your treatment-resistant depression could write its own spiritual autobiography, what would it say? Golems, ancestors, lovers, and psychiatrists are part of the chorus. A penetrating queer story that refuses to settle or resolve its lessons, choosing instead the greatest gift: transformation.” —Alex Leslie, author of We All Need to Eat“Iris and the Dead is an unsettling story of an exploitative relationship, blurred boundaries, intergenerational trauma, a fraught medical system, and the shifting landscape of mental illness and recovery. This moving and meditative queer coming-of-age tale is written in lyrical prose vignettes that embrace desire, menace, and myth. Miranda Schreiber’s debut is as fierce as it is mesmerizing. A gorgeous book that will appeal to readers of Carmen Maria Machado and Daisy Johnson.” —Kathryn Mockler, author of Anecdotes“Iris and the Dead is an unsettling story of an exploitative relationship, blurred boundaries, intergenerational trauma, a fraught medical system, and the shifting landscape of mental illness and recovery. This moving and meditative queer coming-of-age tale is written in lyrical prose vignettes that embrace desire, menace, and myth. Miranda Schreiber’s debut is as fierce as it is mesmerizing. A gorgeous book that will appeal to readers of Carmen Maria Machado and Daisy Johnson.” —Kathryn Mockler, author of Anecdotes“Iris and the Dead is an unsettling story of an exploitative relationship, blurred boundaries, intergenerational trauma, a fraught medical system, and the shifting landscape of mental illness and recovery. This moving and meditative queer coming-of-age tale is written in lyrical prose vignettes that embrace desire, menace, and myth. Miranda Schreiber’s debut is as fierce as it is mesmerizing. A gorgeous book that will appeal to readers of Carmen Maria Machado and Daisy Johnson.” —Kathryn Mockler, author of Anecdotes