Born with the Dead

{{Short description|Novella by Robert Silverberg}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

"Born with the Dead" is a science fiction novella by Robert Silverberg. It describes a near-future world in which the recently dead can be "rekindled" to a new life, but one in which their personalities and attitudes are radically changed; although they possess their memories from their previous lives, their former concerns no longer appear important to them. The story parallels that of Eurydice and Orpheus in the underworld.{{Cite book|title=Unleashing the Strange: Twenty-First Century Science Fiction Literature|last=Broderick|first=Damien|publisher=Borgo Press|year=2009|isbn=9781434457233|pages=198}}

Originally published in 1974 in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, "Born with the Dead" won both the 1975 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 1975 Locus Award for Best Novella.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sfadb.com/Locus_Awards_1975|title = Sfadb: Locus Awards 1975}} The story has subsequently been republished many times in collections.

Silverberg described writing it as one of his most difficult challenges.{{Cite book|title=The Road to Castle Mount: The Science Fiction of Robert Silverberg|last=Chapman|first=Edgar L.|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0313261459|pages=71}}

With Silverberg's permission, Damien Broderick wrote a 30,000 word sequel, "Quicken," which was published with the original as a composite novel, Beyond the Doors of DeathIntroduction by Robert Silverberg, {{Citation |title=Beyond the Doors of Death|publisher=ArcManor|year=2013|isbn=978-1-61242-112-4|page=13}} and included by editor Gardner Dozois in his The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection, 2014.