In Detail: Our October Monthly Read, Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders

Here, Service95 Book Club gives a round-up of everything you need to know about Dua’s Monthly Read for October, Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders...

About the author

Is George Saunders the kindest writer we know? Probably. He is also Professor George Saunders at Syracuse University, where he’s guided generations in creative writing since 1996. A master of the short story, George’s collection Tenth Of December was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Folio Prize in 2013, the same year he was included in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people list. Of George’s 11 books, Lincoln In The Bardo is his first and only novel (so far). It was a number-one  New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize. A Swim In A Pond In The Rain, an exploration of the art of the Russian short story (think of it as sitting in one of Saunders’ seminars) was also a bestseller, and his latest story collection, Liberation Day, was chosen as one of President Obama’s favourite books of 2022. 

Synopsis  

How to summarise this groundbreaking novel… A chorus of ghostly voices and historical citations tell the reader of the death and afterlife of Willie Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln. On February 22, 1862, two days after his death, Willie is laid to rest in a marble crypt in a Georgetown cemetery. Shattered by grief, Abraham Lincoln arrives under cover of darkness to visit the crypt, alone, to spend time with his son’s body. Set over that one night and populated by ghosts of the recently dead and long dead, Willie and the other ghosts fight to remain in this liminal place: with passion, anger, grief, and all the aspects of our humanity. It is a novel – in its form and voice – completely unlike anything you have read before. It is also, in the end, an exploration of the deeper meaning and possibilities of life, written as only George Saunders can: with humour, pathos, and grace. 

Why we loved it

“I loved this unique, bold and compassionate book. At its heart, this is a story of one of the most famous men in history – President Abraham Lincoln – grieving for his dead son Willie, whose death foreshadows the hundreds of thousands of lives that are about to be lost in the American Civil War.

“The action takes place over just 24 hours and is narrated by a cacophony of monologuing, bickering ghosts in a graveyard. Yes, you read that right, and yes, it does take a while to settle into this unusual style. But stick with it and your mind will be well and truly blown.

“As we are introduced to the inhabitants of the ‘Bardo’ – a limbo state between death and whatever comes next – we are invited to walk a mile in the shoes of enslavers and enslaved, grifters, murderers and priests, who all represent a country at war with itself.

“There is no one writing today who can match George Saunders for compassion and empathy. The very last page still replays in my mind. The voices of these spirits – the wretched and the brave, and the dead boy Willie Lincoln – will stay with me forever” – Dua Lipa

What others say

‘A masterpiece” – Zadie Smith  

“A brilliant, Buddhist reimagining of an American story of great loss and great love… Saunders has risen an unsentimental novel of Shakespearean proportions, gorgeously stuffed with tragic characters, bawdy humour, terrifying visions, throat-catching tenderness, and a galloping narrative, all twined around the luminous cord connecting a father and son and backlit by a nation engulfed in fire”– Elle 

“A luminous feat of generosity and humanism… Here is a crucible for a heroic American identity: fearful but unflagging; hopeful even in tragedy; staggering, however tentatively, toward a better world. The father must say goodbye to his son, the son must say goodbye to the father. Abraham Lincoln must stop being the father to a lost boy and assume his role as a father to a nation, one on the brink of cataclysm” – Colson Whitehead, New York Times Book Review 

Interviews with George Saunders 

Read 

George Saunders by Zadie Smith 
Interview Magazine, February 2017
“Some writers work within a tradition, and some create a world from whole cloth. There aren’t many who can do the whole-cloth bit, but George is one of them,” writes Zadie in the piece.

George Saunders: ‘When I get praise, it helps me be a little bit more brave’
Paula Cocozza, Guardian, October 2017 
George Saunders talks about brevity, empathy, and how he sees writing as a form of activism. 

Listen 

21st Century Books Special Edition: George Saunders on ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’
August 2024, New York Times Podcast
As part of its recent 100 Best Books of the 21st Century project, the New York Times Book Review interviews George Saunders about overcoming his fear of writing an ‘earnest’ novel after years of satirical short stories. 

Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders with Sally Phillips
August 2024, Sara and Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club  
In this podcast episode, Sara and Cariad discuss Lincoln In The Bardo with actor Sally Phillips in a refreshing and unpretentious discussion between three women on what they loved about the book. 

Watch 

Lincoln In The Bardo – 360 VR Video
February 2017, The New York Times 
In this immersive narrative short, President Lincoln pays a night-time visit to the haunted cemetery in which his beloved son has just been laid to rest.  

Further Resources  

Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders’ 7-Hour, 166-Person Audiobook, Feels Like a Movie
2017, Wired 
The audio version of Lincoln In The Bardo recruits everyone from comedy stars and Academy Award winners to the author’s elementary school teachers. 

George Saunders: What Writers Really Do When They Write
2017, The Guardian  
Saunders lifts the curtain on the writing process and talks about “the thousands of tiny adjustments” over the process of many drafts. 

Story Club With George Saunders 
Ongoing, Substack
The Office Hours section of George’s Substack is free and you can read George’s answers to questions about writing and reading. 

George Saunders on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
November 2022 
Colbert welcomes one of his favourite authors back to The Late Show to discuss his writing process, both fiction and non-fiction, and his book of short stories, Liberation Day.