Lincoln in the Bardo

Lincoln in the Bardo

by George Saunders

3 mentors recommend this 440 pages

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."

ISBN: 9781408871751

🎯 Who Recommends This Book 3

Bill Gates

Bill Gates

Business & Entrepreneurship

"Despite being a work of fiction, it offered fresh insight that made me rethink parts of [Abraham Lincoln's] life."

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Christopher Harris

Media & Journalism

"Today is a cheat because I didn’t pull it down randomly from The Shelves but rather just finished reading it for the first time, but it’s very good, sort of a purgatory stage play imagining Abe Lincoln in mourning through the perspective of ghosts who don’t know they’re ghosts."

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Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein

Media & Journalism

"Ezra Klein recommended this book on Twitter."

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