Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel

#1 <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE<br><br>The long-awaited first novel from the author of <i>Tenth of December</i>: 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 invented<br><br>Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by <i>The Washington Post, USA Today, </i>and Maureen Corrigan, NPR * One of <i>Time</i>'s Ten Best Novels of the Year * A <i>New York Times </i>Notable Book<br><br>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. &quot;My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,&quot; the president says at the time. &quot;God has called him home.&quot; Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy's body.<br><br>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.<br><i><br>Lincoln in the Bardo</i> 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?<br><br>&quot;A luminous feat of generosity and humanism.&quot; - Colson Whitehead, <i>The</i> <i>New York Times Book Review</i><br><br> &quot;A masterpiece.&quot;<i> - </i>Zadie Smith