***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 Praise for the audiobook Lincoln in the Bardo sets a new
standard for cast recordings in its structure in its performances and in its boldness. Now
let's see who answers the challenge. - Chicago Tribune Like the novel the audiobook breaks new
ground in what can be accomplished through a story. It helps that there's not a single bad note
in the cast of a whopping 166 people. It's also the rare phenomenon of an audiobook being a
completely different experience compared to the novel. Even if you've read the novel the
audiobook is worth a listen (and vice versa). The whole project pushes the narrative form
forward. - A.V. Club The result is an auditory experience unlike any other where the awareness
of individual voices disappears while the carefully calibrated soundscape summons a
metaphysical masterpiece. This is a tour de force of audiobook production and a dazzling
realization of Saunders' unique authorial structure.-Booklist The finished audiobook's tapestry
of voices perfectly mirrors the novel.-Entertainment Weekly Praise for George Saunders No one
writes more powerfully than George Saunders about the lost the unlucky the
disenfranchised.-Michiko Kakutani The New York Times Saunders makes you feel as though you are
reading fiction for the first time.-Khaled Hosseini Few people cut as hard or deep as Saunders
does.-Junot Díaz George Saunders is a complete original. There is no one better no one more
essential to our national sense of self and sanity.-Dave Eggers Not since Twain has America
produced a satirist this funny.-Zadie Smith There is no one like him. He is an original-but
everyone knows that.-Lorrie Moore George Saunders makes the all-but-impossible look effortless.
We're lucky to have him.-Jonathan Franzen An astoundingly tuned voice-graceful dark authentic
and funny-telling just the kinds of stories we need to get us through these times.-Thomas
Pynchon
