#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
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
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 • A New York Times Notable Book • One of O: The Oprah Magazine’s Best Books of the Year
February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” 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 of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.
Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?
“A luminous feat of generosity and humanism.”—Colson Whitehead, The New York Times Book Review
I just want to point out that I am Profoundly Deaf since birth and received a Cochlear Ear Implant In my right year in 2016 and my left ear in 2017. So audiobooks are really REALLY new to me, and I use them to practice my listening mostly. My reviews are what I thought and felt while listening and sometimes I have trouble or can't understand a book and I will say so HOWEVER, this is to be taken into consideration that I am a recent implant recipient and it should in no way discourage you from trying out the audiobook! Often if I cant understand a book, I will seek out the print book, and that will probably be my “real” reaction to the story or information contained therein.
I hate to say it, but this is my first DNF of the year. I had heard great things about this, so I borrowed it from the library and when it finally was my turn a few days a go I dropped everything and eagerly listen to it and...I couldn't understand shit at first. Then I understood a word here and there, and finally, I understood some sentences, but I wasn't getting the story.
If it weren't for Goodreads, I would never have known what the story was. While other people liked the one million people on the audio production to a newly implanted Deaf person, it was mostly gibberish. It reminded me of being in a crowded room and trying to understand people not knowing who was going to speak next. That is never good.
I am sure if I could understand it I would have liked it. I still like the idea of the story, so I am in line for the ebook. I am number one million so maybe I will get to it this year. Crosses fingers
I hated to have to give up on this. I gave it two hours, and after that, I had to conclude defeat. Ah well... I guess I have my limits of what I can understand with my implants. I just wished it was not on an audiobook that I was really REALLY looking forward to.This review was originally posted on Adventures in Never Never Land
