Before he passed away two years ago, the legendary George A. Romero had been working on a brand new zombie novel titled The Living Dead, which was set to bring his long-running zombie saga off the screen and into the world of print. Sadly, Romero never got the chance to complete the novel, but that hasn’t put an end to the project.

As we told you around this time last year, Daniel Kraus, who penned The Shape of Water‘s novelization, had signed on to finish the incomplete novel, and in a tweet he posted last night, Kraus noted that he has turned in “the massive zombie epic” he co-wrote with Romero.

Kraus also notes that The Living Dead will release June 2020 from Tor Books!

In The Living Dead…

“On October 24th, John Doe rises from the dead. Assistant Medical Examiner Luis Acocella and his assistant Charlene Rutkowksi are vivisecting him when it happens, and so begins a global nightmare beyond comprehension.

“Greer Morgan is a teenager living in a trailer park, and when the dead begin their assault, the true natures of her neighbors are revealed. Chuck Chaplin is a pretty-boy cable-news anchor, and the plague brings sudden purpose to his empty life.

“Karl Nishimura is the helmsman of the U.S.S. Vindicator, a nuclear submarine, and he battles against a complete zombie takeover of his city upon the sea. And meanwhile, a mysterious woman named Etta Hoffmann records the progress of the epidemic from a bunker in D.C., as well as the broken dreams and stubborn hopes of a nation not ready to give up.

“Spread across three separate time periods and combining Romero’s biting social commentary with Kraus’s gift for the beautiful and grotesque, the book rockets forward as the zombie plague explodes, endures, and finally, in a shocking final act, begins to radically change.”

I have turned in THE LIVING DEAD, the massive zombie epic I co-wrote with George Romero. While writing, I wore George’s scarf, a gift from his wife. (June 2020 from @torbooks) pic.twitter.com/QySG1deNVS

— Daniel Kraus (@DanielDKraus) February 19, 2019