This is a deeply moving and unconventional novel that brilliantly blends historical fiction with the supernatural. Through a kaleidoscope of voices, George Saunders creates a rich tapestry of emotions, humor, and poignancy as Abraham Lincoln navigates the grief of losing his young son during the tumultuous time of the Civil War. The vividly imagined world of the bardo, a transitional realm between life and death, adds a thrilling and thought-provoking element to this unforgettable story. With its beautifully crafted prose and exploration of the human condition, Lincoln in the Bardo is a must-read for those seeking a unique and profound literary experience.

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• Booker Prize (2017)
• Tähtivaeltaja Award Nominee (2019)
• Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) Nominee for International Book (2018)
• Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2018)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2017)
• Waterstones Book of the Year Nominee (2017)
• Gordon Burn Prize Nominee for Longlist (2017)
• Golden Man Booker Prize Nominee (2018)
• Dublin Literary Award Nominee for Shortlist (2019)

The extraordinary first novel by the bestselling, Folio Prize-winning, National Book Award-shortlisted George Saunders, about Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven year old son, Willie, at the dawn of the Civil War February 1862. The American Civil War rages while President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son lies gravely ill. In a matter of days, Willie dies and 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 and loss that breaks free of realism, entering a thrilling, supernatural domain both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself trapped in a strange purgatory – called, in Tibetan tradition, the bardo – invisible to his father, bowed at the tomb. Within this transitional realm, where ghosts mingle, squabble, gripe and commiserate, and 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 and grace. Here he invents an exhilarating new form, and is confirmed as one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Deploying a theatrical, kaleidoscopic panoply of voices – living and dead, historical and fictional – Lincoln in the Bardo poses a timeless question: how do we live and love when we know that everything we hold dear must end?

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