#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZEThe “devastatingly moving” (People) first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and inventedNamed One of Paste’s Best Novels of the Decade • Named One of the Ten … One of Paste’s Best Novels of the Decade • Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, USA Today, and Maureen Corrigan, NPR • One of Time’s Ten Best Novels of the Year • A New York Times Notable Book • One of O: The Oprah Magazine’s Best Books of the Year
February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body.
From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.
Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?
“A luminous feat of generosity and humanism.”—Colson Whitehead, The New York Times Book Review
“A masterpiece.”—Zadie Smith
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Pretentious, ponderous, gave up half way through
This is a challenging read, but so unique that it’s not to be missed by any reader who appreciates originality and a read that isn’t simple.
funny – sometimes, clever -yes, boring – many times, due to the structure, new writing – not really. was done before and in a way it is sort of laziness in writing the jumping structure, and the different voices. still sometimes it is amazing poetic.
the idea is fine. Bardo , the buddhist tibetan state when our soul already left the body but still not connected to the endless source. this is the main point of the book. how to accept death and how to help those who going to die or died already.
in this point this is a brave book who deals with amazing question. maybe the question. so with all the mish mush sometimes there are amazing pearls.
Modern classic. Defies classification.
I was interested in reading this book, but I found I could not get past the strange format the author used. Not written in the usual style of paragraphs and chapters, more like choppy, lists of sentences. I tried twice, not for me. I like Lincoln too. Disappointing.
Cnfusing. Could not finish it
Seriously the worst book I’ve ever tried to read. I almost always finish books I start, but not this one. The writing style defies description. How it made best seller lists is a mystery. Just not for me at all!!!! If I could give it zero stars, I would.
Too weird for me!
Interesting structure to this book. May not be everyone’s cup of tea.
I would love to see it as a play.
I only made it through about 20 pages and I very rarely quit a book. Not my kind of book at all. Very strange.
Gave up reading the book. Just could not get into it. Thought it very boring.
An exquisite experience from a master storyteller!
Thought provoking and compelling.
Very unusual book, but i really enjoyed reading it.
I didn’t like the format of this book. It was very hard to get into. I actually didn’t finish it.
This book just required too much effort to read! Occasionally the reader would think, “Aha, now I understand what the author wants the reader to know” but then the story became very convoluted and just plain boring. I couldn’t force myself to continue reading this book. This extremely rare for this reader!
I found it incomprehensible.
I was so distracted by the formatting of the writing (with all the comments as individual quotes by the other spirits” that it took away from the beauty of the story for me. There were some humorous antics but overall it was disappointing and would not be a book I would recommend to others
Eerie, strange and wonderful!