Lincoln in the Bardo: WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017

(Paperback)

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WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 A STORY OF LOVE AFTER DEATH A masterpiece Zadie Smith Extraordinary Daily Mail 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 and 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 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 transitional realm - called, in Tibetan tradition, the bardo - and as 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

Reviews

George Saunderss brilliant debut novel about a grieving Lincoln confirms him as a literary star To read Saunderss fiction is to be dazzled by ingenuity, imagination and searing comic verve ... A tender but trenchant reminder that America is and always has been many-voiced: not one story, but millions * Sunday Times *
Death haunts us, and in Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders mines the many ways it does: the Gothic, the sentimental, the fearful and, above all, the grief-stricken -- Joan Bakewell * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2017 *
I was impressed but challenged by the originality and scope of George Saunderss Booker-winning story of grief and empathy, Lincoln in the Bardo -- Gordon Brown * Guardian, Best Books of 2017 *
A luminous feat of generosity and humanism Such is Saunderss magnificent portraiture that readers will recognize in this wretchedness and bravery aspects of their own characters as well -- Colson Whitehead * New York Times *
The most strange and brilliant book youll read this year Riotously imagined ... So intimate and human, so profound, that it seems like an act of grace * Financial Times *
A historical novel that hews deeply and movingly to archival fact while also being an all-out crazy spectacle of his own invention ... A puzzling, hilarious vortex of invention that only Saunders could pull off. The novel made me feel intimate with Lincoln, and that particular moment of history, in a way I never had before -- Jennifer Egan * Guardian, Best Books of 2017 *
Ingenious ... As entrancing as it is beautiful -- Chigozie Obioma * Observer, Best Books of the Year 2017 *
Dazzling and disorientating As you turn the pages of this remarkable novel it starts to feel uncannily like a hinge in American history * The Times *
Lincoln in the Bardo was every bit as wonderful as I expected from the great George Saunders -- Paul Murray * Observer, Best Books of the Year 2017 *
It would be an understatement to call this novel an extraordinary tour de force ... Steeped in morality, it's a master-feat of vitality * Sunday Times *
Could hardly be more of a phenomenal tour de force ... Encompassing macabre fantasy and aching emotion, this brilliantly imaginative excursion into a post-mortem world hauntingly celebrates the pleasures and the privilege of life -- Peter Kemp * The Sunday Times, 'Novel of the Year 2017' *
A breathtakingly agile narrative A brilliant, exhausting, emotionally involving attempt to get up again, to fight for empathy, kindness and self-sacrifice, and to resist -- Alex Clark * Observer *
The book is as weird as it sounds, but its also pretty darn good -- James Marriott * The Times, Best Fiction of 2017 *
A surreal metaphysical drama about grief and freedom ... A father-son narrative that is both hilarious and haunting -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Evening Standard *
I was so pleased that George Saunders won the Booker for Lincoln in the Bardo. Hes like literary psilocybin, scaring the bejesus out of you before revealing the world anew -- Richard Godwin * Evening Standard, Books of the Year 2017 *
Saunderss extraordinary verbal energy is harnessed, for the most part, in the service of capturing the pathos of everyday life It is Saunderss beautifully realized portrait of Lincoln caught at this hinge moment in time, in his own personal bardo, as it were that powers this book -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *
I cant choose Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders: everyone will, right Still, its utterly astonishing -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2017 *
A masterpiece -- Zadie Smith * New York Times *
The Man Booker Prize judges got it right in choosing George Saunderss Lincoln in the Bardo ... A polyphonic masterpiece, by turns hilarious and deeply poignant -- Jason Cowley * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2017 *
An incredible work of art. Deeply moral, heartfelt, hilarious, and wildly imaginative * Buzzfeed *
A strange and haunting novel his highly anticipated first, after decades of short-story wizardry about the effect the dead have on the living, and the living on the dead * Economist *
The story canters along ... The writing constantly surprises * Mail on Sunday *
Lincoln in the Bardo has great matters on its mind: freedom and slavery, the spirit and the body. But it is, finally, about Abraham Lincoln, that great spectral presence in a whole subgenre of American fiction * New Yorker *
Must be one of my favourite novels. What a warm, kindhearted and radical piece of writing. Such delicacy, such serious wit. I love it -- Max Porter
This is a book that confounds our expectations of what a novel should look and sound like * Washington Post *
The much anticipated long-form debut from the US short-story maestro does not dissapoint * Guardian *
An original father-son tale that expertly blends history and fiction (and even the supernatural), Lincoln in the Bardo explores grief, loss, life, death * Buzzfeed Year Ahead in Books *
A historical novel like no other a supernatural ensemble extravaganza of awesome intricacy and somewhat perplexing purpose ... A feat of style ... A polyphonic spree that spins the head -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Telegraph *
George Saunders makes you feel as though you are reading fiction for the first time * Khaled Hosseini *
A cacophonous, genre-busting book inspired by the death of Abraham Lincoln's young son * Metro *
A morally passionate, serious writer ... He will be read long after these times have passed * Zadie Smith *
He makes the all-but-impossible look effortless. We're lucky to have him * Jonathan Franzen *
An astoundingly tuned voice graceful, dark, authentic and funny * Thomas Pynchon *
Saunders is a writer of arresting brilliance and originality, with a sure sense of his material and apparently inexhaustible resources of voice ... Scary, hilarious and unforgettable * Tobias Wolff *
There is no one better, no one more essential * Dave Eggers *
Few people cut as hard or deep as Saunders does * Junot Diaz *
Saunders is a true original - restlessly inventive, yet deeply humane * Jennifer Egan *
Reading George Saunders is, it's safe to say, like no other literary experience * Observer *
No one writes more powerfully than George Saunders about the lost, the unlucky, the disenfranchised -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *
Funny, poignant in flashes, deeply moving light as a feather and consistently weird -- Hari Kunzru
There is really no one like him. He is an original but everyone knows that -- Lorrie Moore
Swings from hilarious to crushing and back again with astonishing dexterity An exceptional novel Believe the hype * Chicago Review of Books *
Strange, profound, melancholy In the final of Lincoln of the Bardo, the realities of death and loss are faced head-on ... Historical fiction will never be the same * Newsday *
The author may have set out to write his first novel, but the work he completed is a genre unto itself * The Atlantic *
An unsentimental novel of Shakespearean proportions, gorgeously stuffed with tragic characters, bawdy humor, terrifying visions, throat-catching tenderness, and a galloping narrative * Elle *
One of the strangest books of mainstream fiction around, competing only with some of Saunders's own story collection for unbridled inventiveness * GQ *
A matterlightblooming phenomenon. Loud and big. Exploding with grief and, more so, hope. And better left undescribed until you yourself reach the end * Time *
Its only February but this will undoubtedly be considered one of the best books of 2017 * Huffington Post *
Wonderfully bizarre and hilariously terrifying examination of the ability to live and love * Poets & Writers *
Moving and inventive tour de force * Sunday Times *
Fiction taken to a new realm, and a work of sheer brilliance * GQ *
This astounding novel pitches you into the strangest of places ... Brilliant * Psychologies *
Devastatingly moving * People *
Along with the wonderfully bizarre, empathy abounds in Lincoln * Time *
A strange, wise novel, truer in its expression than many ostensibly historical novels * New Humanist *
Tremendously moving ... Surpasses all expectations. This is a masterpiece * Sunday Express *
An urgently political, profoundly moral book, albeit one so playful and so fantastical that the reader may hardly notice * Economist *
A joyous, comically macabre exploration of love, death and loss ... Bursting with life -- Book of the Week * Bristol Post *
Saunders is defined by a crackling, electric kind of empathy; by the kind of humbling understanding that simply comes from trying to look further, understand more, know deeper -- Joseph Earp * The Brag *
A hands-down masterpiece the subject of Abraham Lincoln and the genius of this author is a perfect union I wept while reading this book. It is singular Ive never read anything quite like it -- Jeffrey Tambor * International New York Times *
I literally couldnt put it down Hilarious to poignant to really moving * Irish Country *
Surprising, daring, emotionally wrenching and warm-hearted * Sunday Times, Summer Reading, Our Top Five *
Fact and fiction mingle in this affecting portrait of a grieving president * Financial Times, Summer Reading *
Best known for his critically acclaimed short stories, this is Saunders first full-length novel, told with tenderness, imagination and wit * Zoe Apostolides, Daily Telegraph, Summer Reading *
Its like a gothic, American Under Milk Wood * The Times, Summer Reading *
Filled with wit and sadnes

Author Bio

George Saunders is the author of nine books, including Lincoln in the Bardo, winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize. Tenth of December was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the inaugural Folio Prize. He has received MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships and the PEN/Malamud Prize for excellence in the short story, and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2013, he was named one of the worlds 100 most influential people by Time magazine. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University. georgesaundersbooks.com