Lincoln in the bardo

Resource Information

The work Lincoln in the bardo represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Georgetown Peabody Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Lincoln in the bardo

Statement of responsibility

George Saunders

Creator

• Saunders, George, 1958-

Author

• Saunders, George, 1958-

Subject

• Historical fiction
• Large type books
• Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Fiction
• Biographical fiction
• Presidents -- United States -- Fiction
• Grief -- Fiction

Genre

• Historical fiction
• Fiction
• Biographical fiction

Language

eng

Summary

"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."--Amazon.com

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

813/.54

Index

no index present

LC call number

PS3569.A7897

LC item number

L56 2017b

Literary form

fiction