Lincoln in the Bardo

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 kaleidoscope, 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.

George Saunders, 350 pages, paperback