Book Club Guide

Lincoln in the Bardo

by George Saunders · 2017 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

Grief and what it does — even to a president during war
The dead who cannot accept their death — and what holds them back
America's original sin seen from an unusual angle

About this book

Abraham Lincoln visits the Washington cemetery where his son Willie has just been buried, and the novel unfolds through the voices of the ghosts inhabiting the bardo — the intermediate state between death and whatever comes next — as they witness Lincoln's grief and try to help Willie move on. Saunders's Man Booker-winning debut novel is formally unlike anything else.

Published in 2017, Lincoln in the Bardo won the Man Booker Prize. Saunders reportedly spent about ten years on the project, beginning it after reading about Lincoln's nocturnal visits to his son's tomb.

Discussion questions

The novel has over 160 narrators — ghosts in the Washington cemetery and sources cited from historical accounts. How does Saunders manage this multiplicity — and what does the formal cacophony achieve?
The ghosts are in the bardo — a Buddhist intermediate state — because they haven't accepted their deaths. How does Saunders develop this metaphysical premise — and what is he saying about the relationship between acceptance and moving on?
Lincoln himself is a relatively silent figure in a novel named after him. What does Saunders achieve by keeping him at the periphery while the ghosts observe him?
The novel won the Booker Prize. What does it do that earns literary recognition for what is formally very unusual — and how does the grief for Willie illuminate the historical grief for the nation?
Lincoln in the Bardo was Saunders's debut novel after many short story collections. How does it relate to his short fiction — and does the novel form serve or strain against his particular gifts?