LINCOLN IN THE BARDO

The captivating first novel by the best-selling, National Book Award nominee George Saunders, about Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven year old son, Willie, at the dawn of the Civil War.

On February 22, 1862, two days after his death, Willie Lincoln was laid to rest in a marble crypt in a Georgetown cemetery. That very night, shattered by grief, Abraham Lincoln arrives at the cemetery under cover of darkness and visits the crypt, alone, to spend time with his son's body. Set over the course of that one night and populated by ghosts of the recently passed and the long dead, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO is a thrilling exploration of death, grief, the powers of good and evil, 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 humor, pathos, and grace.

George Saunders is the New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-nominated author of the story collection TENTH OF DECEMBER (Random House, January 2013). He is a MacArthur “genius” grant recipient and New Yorker contributor, as well as the author of six books (including the acclaimed short story collections CIVILWARLAND IN BAD DECLINE, PASTORALIA, and IN PERSUASION NATION), a bestselling children’s book, and an essay collection, THE BRAINDEAD MEGAPHONE. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University. TENTH OF DECEMBER won both the inaugural Folio Prize and the 2013 PEN/Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Random House released an e-short by the author called FOX 8, in 2013, and also published CONGRATULATIONS, BY THE WAY (an expansion of his 2013 commencement speech at Syracuse University) in 2014.