Booker Prize-winning US novelist George Saunders will join us for the next Guardian Live Book Club to talk about Lincoln in the Bardo.
Set in 1862, a year into the American civil war, Lincoln in the Bardo tells the story of the death of Willie, Abraham Lincoln’s 11-year-old son. As the grief-stricken president walks through the cemetery in which his son is buried, Willie finds himself trapped in a transitional realm between life and death - in Tibetan tradition called the bardo. As a struggle begins over the young boy's soul, a chorus of reluctant spirits lament and rejoice the fragility of life and the certainty of death.
Known for his short stories, including his Folio Prize-winning collection Tenth of December, Lincoln in the Bardo is Saunders’ first novel. It was highly praised by critics and fellow novelists: Zadie Smith called it “a masterpiece” and Colson Whitehead described it as “a luminous feat of generosity and humanism”. In 2017 it won the Booker Prize for fiction.
This event is part of our online Book Club series, in which The Guardian’s chief books writer, Lisa Allardice, talks to leading writers about their latest novels, creative process and isolation. They will also be answering your questions, in these livestreamed events.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, a new collection of essays from Saunders on the Russian short story, will be published in January 2021.
£5 plus £0.72 booking fee
If you live in the UK, you can purchase a ticket with a copy of Lincoln in the Bardo at checkout for the special combined price of £13 including postage and packing (RRP £8.99).
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