In George Saunders’ debut novel, moving tales from the crypt
GEORGE SAUNDERS MAY BE THE MOST CELEBRATED DEBUT NOVELIST OF THE 21st century. Saunders, 58, won decades of acclaim for his short-story collections (1996’s CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, 2013’s Tenth of December) that amplify the intricacies of American culture via the surreal and fantastical. Lincoln in the Bardo, his remarkable first full-length novel, continues apace, taking for its starting point a historical anecdote about Abraham Lincoln visiting the tomb of his recently deceased son, killed by typhoid fever in 1862. In the novel, dozens of ghosts linger over the 11-year-old’s grave, observing a President and father in grief. They are
