WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017A STORY OF LOVE AFTER DEATH`A masterpiece` Zadie Smith` Breathtaking` Observer`A tour de force` The Sunday Times The extraordinary first novel by the bestselling, Folio Prize-winning, National Book Award-shortlisted George Saunders, about Abraham Lincoln & the death of his eleven year old son, Willie, at the dawn of the Civil War The American Civil War rages while President Lincoln`s beloved eleven-year-old son lies gravely ill. In a matter of days, Willie dies & is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy`s body. From this seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love & loss that breaks free of realism, entering a thrilling, supernatural domain both hilarious & terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself trapped in a transitional realm
- called, in Tibetan tradition, the bardo
- & as ghosts mingle, squabble, gripe & commiserate, & stony tendrils creep towards the boy, a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie`s soul. Unfolding over a single night, Lincoln in the Bardo is written with George Saunders` inimitable humour, pathos & grace. Here he invents an exhilarating new form, & is confirmed as one of the most important & influential writers of his generation. Deploying a theatrical, kaleidoscopic panoply of voices
- living & dead, historical & fictional
- Lincoln in the Bardo poses a timeless question: how do we live & love when we know that everything we hold dear must end?