Read this when
Lincoln in the Bardo
Ghosts who won't admit they're dead, calling their coffins 'sick-boxes.' If you keep going back to the grave, this one understands. 🕯️
Who it's for
Over one night in February 1862, Abraham Lincoln returns to the crypt of his eleven-year-old son Willie, and the reader watches his grief through a crowd of ghosts who refuse to accept that they are dead.
Feelings it meets
What it is
George Saunders's first novel, which won the 2017 Booker Prize, is set in February 1862, early in the Civil War, after President Abraham Lincoln's 11-year-old son Willie dies of an illness and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown.
Where to find it
In print (Random House in the US, Bloomsbury in the UK); widely available from libraries (Libby/Hoopla) and as a full-cast audiobook. Not public domain.
Before you start
Heads up: A child's death and a suicide.
Age: Ages 16+
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5
