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Lincoln in the Bardo

by George Saunders

A historical moment opens onto a chorus of voices

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Regular price $24.31 USD
Regular price $40.52 USD Sale price $24.31 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    Booker Prize winner

    The source states that the book won the Booker Prize.

  • Bestseller

    #1 New York Times bestseller

    The source identifies the book as a #1 New York Times bestseller.

  • Editorial selection

    One of The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

    Included among The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A historical moment opens onto a chorus of voices

Set in February 1862, the novel begins with the death of Abraham Lincoln’s eleven-year-old son, Willie, and reports that Lincoln returned to the Georgetown cemetery to visit his body. From this historical starting point, George Saunders moves beyond realism into a supernatural setting populated by the living and the dead, bringing historical and invented voices together in a theatrical, many-voiced structure. The book places a father’s grief alongside the larger context of the Civil War and considers how love persists in the face of loss and mortality. Its combination of documented history, imaginative invention, and questions about human attachment gives the novel both a specific historical frame and a broader subject.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in historical fiction centered on Abraham Lincoln and his family.
  • Readers drawn to supernatural settings and narratives built from multiple voices.
  • Readers interested in grief, love, and mortality as literary themes.

Themes

Grief and familyLove and mortalityThe Civil War eraHistory and invention

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE - A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

The "devastatingly moving" (People) first novel from the author of Tenth of December a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented

One of The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years - One of Paste's Best Novels of the Decade

"[Lincoln in the Bardo] demonstrates that even the unspeakable--civil war, familial grief--can be named through a close, humanizing narrative voice."--Amanda Gorman for Time, "25 Books That Capture This American Moment"

February 1862. With the Civil War less than one year old, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, 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, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy's body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story that breaks free of its realistic framework into a thrilling, supernatural realm, deploying a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices--living and dead, historical and invented--to ask a timeless question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?

Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, USA Today, and Maureen Corrigan, NPR - One of Time's Ten Best Novels of the Year - One of O: The Oprah Magazine's Best Books of the Year
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Customer reviews

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Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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Thomas DiMassa

Great service and fast service

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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Olivia

Smooth.