KS5/Adult LRC Book Recommendation - Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
At the dawn of
the Civil War Abraham Lincoln nurses a very private grief.
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: electric, 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. Inventing an exhilarating new
form, Saunders confirms his status 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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