#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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This book was very appealing to me because I am intrigued by the hereafter. I thought it imaginative and intriguing, insightful and well written. Definitely not predictable. Very thought provoking. Highly recommend.
The audio version of this book is a performance masterpiece.
Not for me.
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders takes you to that space where souls abide between life and death. A journey and a reckoning–gruesome, bawdy, tender, and honest–that is brilliantly rendered.
If you like magical realism and Civil War history, this book is for you.
did not enjoy. weird writing style
It was a very difficult read. If I have to struggle through a book I don’t waste my time
I think that this book most reminds me of a marriage of the Divine Comedy to Team of Rivals. “ Original” doesn’t begin to describe it . I admit to reading two reviews before starting which helped dispel my initial confusion. The book proceeds almost entirely of short attributed historical references interspersed with dialogue of a large group of dead people. I am still thinking about it several weeks after finishing it.
Great satire. A book that makes you laugh and think. Can read it again and again
Difficult to read, but deep and haunting.
My expectations of this novel were far greater than what it delivered. What I thought would be an original story about Abraham Lincoln dwelling in the Bardo with his son and the perspectives that might have offered was not the case. There is no question that Saunder’s choice to form a narrative from real and imagined quotations was quite original. Unfortunately, it wasn’t terribly readable. We linger throughout the story in the netherworld of a cemetery and, as a result, feel as stuck and purposeless as its denizens.
By far one of the most difficult reads you can pick up. I recommend the audio version and advise you just enjoy the crowded room of people discussing life and death and many other subjects. After listening to it feel free to read the written word. I took a full year course in James Joyce on his book Ulysses and I’m saying if you enjoy confusion in a story this is your book. It’s funny and interesting but you will be required to work
An incredible, poignant look at life, death, suffering and achievement told in the shadow of one of America’s greatest historical figures.
Was it the Audible narration that stopped me mid-stream? I don’t really think so. I didn’t understand all the uproar. Pretentious and tedious is what I thought, but three stars because I know I was missing something.
I love this book. Even as I was reading it I knew this wouldn’t be a one and done experience. This is a book I will refer back to for years to quote or relate a specific passage or incident. Saunders may have created a new genre in this mix of history and fantasy as he describes Abraham Lincoln’s visit to the cemetery where the body of his recently passed son Willie has been lain, so he may hold the lifeless child in his arms one last time. Saunders uses this heart-wrenching yet macabre, historically documented incident as the gateway into the graveyard where its deceased denizens watch the arrival of a man from “that previous place” and wonder at what effect it might have on Willie, who has just arrived there—but also what might it mean for themselves as well.
I was drawn in immediately by the specificity of each person’s story (often poignant, sometimes humorous) as well as by the poetic language which at times reminded me of the work of e.e. cummings. What quickly becomes horrifyingly clear in the opening pages is that these people do not know they are dead. They believe they have been brought to this strange place to aid them in their recovery from illness or injury, and eventually they will be revived. I was reminded of the graveyard scenes in Our Town, but the dead in Thornton Wilder’s play have attained deep knowledge and a certain detachment that Saunders characters do not share. These folk seem obsessed with the circumstances of their demise and confused that their loved ones have yet to retrieve them. Although I found these stories fascinating, initially the book made me so sad I was tempted to put it aside. But I knew the author of the Tenth of December would take me somewhere completely unexpected, hopefully redemptive, and as I read on, I was not disappointed.
No spoilers here but I will say that the figure of Abraham Lincoln has been imbued with a mythological quality over the century and a half since he lived. He is certainly our most admired and beloved president, holding the near status of savior in our imagination. Saunders employs quotes from primary and academic sources to inform us that in his own day, Lincoln’s popularity was far from universal. But this fantastic tale adds to Lincoln’s mythos as a deeply sensitive, intuitive, and open-hearted man, whose very presence changes those around him, and who allows this profound experience to challenge his thoughts as well. He leaves the cemetery with a resolve that is surprising and revelatory for the reader.
If you’re interested in other contemplations of the afterlife, I would recommend The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlife by David Eagleman, and the aforementioned Our Town by Thornton Wilder.
I did not like it. I didn’t understand it.
I found this book beautifully written but difficult to get into. Interesting story but perhaps a little beyond my literary understanding.
Provided some new historical information which made it interesting.
The book is written in a very unusual style. It reminded me of Waiting for Godot. Before, during, or after reading, I recommend listening to it as well.
This is a very unusual book.