Lincoln in the Bardo
A Novel
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Lincoln in the Bardo
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Written by:
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George Saunders
About this listen
***WINNER OF THE 2018 AUDIE AWARD FOR AUDIOBOOK OF THE YEAR***
The long-awaited 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
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?
The 166-person full cast features award-winning actors and musicians, as well as a number of Saunders’ family, friends, and members of his publishing team, including, in order of their appearance:
Nick Offerman as HANS VOLLMAN
David Sedaris as ROGER BEVINS III
Carrie Brownstein as ISABELLE PERKINS
George Saunders as THE REVEREND EVERLY THOMAS
Miranda July as MRS. ELIZABETH CRAWFORD
Lena Dunham as ELISE TRAYNOR
Ben Stiller as JACK MANDERS
Julianne Moore as JANE ELLIS
Susan Sarandon as MRS. ABIGAIL BLASS
Bradley Whitford as LT. CECIL STONE
Bill Hader as EDDIE BARON
Megan Mullally as BETSY BARON
Rainn Wilson as PERCIVAL “DASH” COLLIER
Jeff Tweedy as CAPTAIN WILLIAM PRINCE
Kat Dennings as MISS TAMARA DOOLITTLE
Jeffrey Tambor as PROFESSOR EDMUND BLOOMER
Mike O’Brien as LAWRENCE T. DECROIX
Keegan-Michael Key as ELSON FARWELL
Don Cheadle as THOMAS HAVENS
and
Patrick Wilson as STANLEY “PERFESSER” LIPPERT
with
Kirby Heyborne as WILLIE LINCOLN,
Mary Karr as MRS. ROSE MILLAND,
and Cassandra Campbell as Your Narrator
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,296
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 218
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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What the critics say
"A luminous feat of generosity and humanism.”—Colson Whitehead, The New York Times Book Review
“Grief guts us all, but rarely has it been elucidated with such nuance and brilliance as in Saunders’s Civil War phantasmagoria. Heartrending yet somehow hilarious, Saunders’s zinger of an allegory holds a mirror to our perilous current moment.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“An extended national ghost story . . . As anyone who knows Saunders’s work would expect, his first novel is a strikingly original production.”—The Washington Post
What listeners say about Lincoln in the Bardo
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Evin
- 2019-02-14
Meh
couldn't finish it, wasn't my style. might be better in physical form but not easy to follow
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- JohnS
- 2018-11-28
Fantastical
No question about this G. Saunders creative outing, but a bit of a grunt to listen to... not because of the narrators, they were all excellent. The story simply was tortuous in places and the citations, although appropriate were distracting. I will read it and see if I feel better about the whole thing. My recommendation is: go ahead and give it a try. You may enjoy it a lot.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Santokh Bansal
- 2021-01-02
Entertaining and Informative
A tale of many tales. A brilliant masterpiece of stories told through many different personalities.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jamie
- 2021-12-11
Unexpected delight
Struggled to begin with, then I was mesmerized. Masterfully produced and read. I will need to now read the paper copy because it seems it must have been made to be read. Like poetry.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2018-07-12
Outstanding
Exceptional and full of heart. This story was not at all what I expected, in the very best way.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- BigAl
- 2018-05-28
Fantastic book
Very original and interesting book. Definitely a tearjerker in some parts. A meditation on the purpose of life and a creative interpretation of a possible afterlife. You also learn a bit about the Lincolns and the civil war.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amir
- 2024-09-24
Purgatory on Paper
If "Lincoln in the Bardo" aimed to give readers a taste of purgatory, then bravo, mission accomplished! Slogging through the pages felt like a spiritual limbo—sans the enlightenment part. But if George Saunders had another goal in mind, it's unclear what that was. Reading this book was akin to being at a séance where Lincoln himself might have whispered from the beyond, "Maybe try something lighter next time?" On the bright side, if you ever wanted to deeply ponder the existential dread of the afterlife while scratching your head in confusion, this is your ticket to the show!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- DANIEL E.
- 2020-02-07
Love
This is the audiobook that made me fall in love with audiobooks. It’s the best.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2020-09-27
Not sure.
This is definitely a different type of story. There were some interesting parts and some parts where it just dragged on and on. I’m not sure I liked it and I’m not sure that I disliked it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Aisha
- 2019-02-19
Loved it!
It was hard to get into. I didn’t understand what was happening with the quotes, so read a bit of the book in print. I came back to the audiobook once I got the format and LOVED it! Listened to it twice in a row! Beautiful, touching,funny, engaging! Masterful performances!
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