{"product_id":"lincoln-in-the-bardo-winner-of-the-man-booker-prize-2017-9781408871775","title":"Lincoln in the Bardo: WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA STORY OF LOVE AFTER DEATH\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A masterpiece’ Zadie Smith\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Extraordinary’ \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Breathtaking’ \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘\u003c\/i\u003eA tour de force’ \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe extraordinary first novel by the bestselling, Folio Prize-winning, National Book Award-shortlisted George Saunders, about Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven year old son, Willie, at the dawn of the Civil War\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe American Civil War rages while President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son lies gravely ill. In a matter of days, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy's body.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom this seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of realism, entering a thrilling, supernatural domain both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself trapped in a transitional realm - called, in Tibetan tradition, the bardo - and as ghosts mingle, squabble, gripe and commiserate, and stony tendrils creep towards the boy, a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie's soul.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnfolding over a single night, \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e is written with George Saunders' inimitable humour, pathos and grace. Here he invents an exhilarating new form, and is confirmed as one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Deploying a theatrical, kaleidoscopic panoply of voices - living and dead, historical and fictional - \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e poses a timeless question: how do we live and love when we know that everything we hold dear must end?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781408871775\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 368\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: London, United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 19.6(H)x12.6(L)x2.6(W)257\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): 257\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeorge Saunders is the author of nine books, including \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize.\u003ci\u003e Tenth of December\u003c\/i\u003e was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the inaugural Folio Prize. He has received MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships and the PEN\/Malamud Prize for excellence in the short story, and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2013, he was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by \u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003emagazine. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003egeorgesaundersbooks.com\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cb\u003eGeorge Saunders’s brilliant debut novel about a grieving Lincoln confirms him as a literary star … To read Saunders’s fiction is to be dazzled by ingenuity, imagination and searing comic verve ... A tender but trenchant reminder that America is and always has been many-voiced: not one story, but millions\u003c\/b\u003e * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eDeath haunts us, and in \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e George Saunders mines the many ways it does: the Gothic, the sentimental, the fearful and, above all, the grief-stricken -- Joan Bakewell * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2017 *\u003cbr\u003eI was impressed but challenged by the originality and scope of George Saunders’s Booker-winning story of grief and empathy, \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e -- Gordon Brown * Guardian, Best Books of 2017 *\u003cbr\u003eA luminous feat of generosity and humanism… Such is Saunders’s magnificent portraiture that readers will recognize in this wretchedness and bravery aspects of their own characters as well -- Colson Whitehead * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003eThe most strange and brilliant book you’ll read this year … Riotously imagined ... So intimate and human, so profound, that it seems like an act of grace * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003eA historical novel that hews deeply and movingly to archival fact while also being an all-out crazy spectacle of his own invention ... A puzzling, hilarious vortex of invention that only Saunders could pull off. The novel made me feel intimate with Lincoln, and that particular moment of history, in a way I never had before -- Jennifer Egan * Guardian, Best Books of 2017 *\u003cbr\u003eIngenious ... As entrancing as it is beautiful -- Chigozie Obioma * Observer, Best Books of the Year 2017 *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDazzling and disorientating … As you turn the pages of this remarkable novel it starts to feel uncannily like a hinge in American history\u003c\/b\u003e * The Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e was every bit as wonderful as I expected from the great George Saunders -- Paul Murray * Observer, Best Books of the Year 2017 *\u003cbr\u003eIt would be an understatement to call this novel an extraordinary tour de force ... Steeped in morality, it's a master-feat of vitality * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eCould hardly be more of a phenomenal tour de force ... Encompassing macabre fantasy and aching emotion, this brilliantly imaginative excursion into a post-mortem world hauntingly celebrates the pleasures and the privilege of life -- Peter Kemp * The Sunday Times, 'Novel of the Year 2017' *\u003cbr\u003eA breathtakingly agile narrative … A brilliant, exhausting, emotionally involving attempt to get up again, to fight for empathy, kindness and self-sacrifice, and to resist -- Alex Clark * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eThe book is as weird as it sounds, but it’s also pretty darn good -- James Marriott * The Times, Best Fiction of 2017 *\u003cbr\u003eA surreal metaphysical drama about grief and freedom ... A father-son narrative that is both hilarious and haunting\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Evening Standard *\u003cbr\u003eI was so pleased that George Saunders won the Booker for \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e. He’s like literary psilocybin, scaring the bejesus out of you before revealing the world anew -- Richard Godwin * Evening Standard, Books of the Year 2017 *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSaunders’s extraordinary verbal energy is harnessed, for the most part, in the service of capturing the pathos of everyday life … It is Saunders’s beautifully realized portrait of Lincoln — caught at this hinge moment in time, in his own personal bardo, as it were — that powers this book\u003c\/b\u003e -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003eI can’t choose \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo \u003c\/i\u003eby George Saunders: everyone will, right? Still, it’s utterly astonishing -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2017 *\u003cbr\u003eA masterpiece -- Zadie Smith * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003e‘The Man Booker Prize judges got it right in choosing George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo ... A polyphonic masterpiece, by turns hilarious and deeply poignant -- Jason Cowley * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2017 *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn incredible work of art. Deeply moral, heartfelt, hilarious, and wildly imaginative\u003c\/b\u003e * Buzzfeed *\u003cbr\u003eA strange and haunting novel – his highly anticipated first, after decades of short-story wizardry – about the effect the dead have on the living, and the living on the dead * Economist *\u003cbr\u003eThe story canters along ... The writing constantly surprises * Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo \u003c\/i\u003ehas great matters on its mind: freedom and slavery, the spirit and the body. But it is, finally, “about” Abraham Lincoln, that great spectral presence in a whole subgenre of American fiction * New Yorker *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMust be one of my favourite novels. What a warm, kindhearted and radical piece of writing. Such delicacy, such serious wit. I love it\u003c\/b\u003e -- Max Porter\u003cbr\u003eThis is a book that confounds our expectations of what a novel should look and sound like * Washington Post *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe much anticipated long-form debut from the US short-story maestro does not dissapoint\u003c\/b\u003e * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eAn original father-son tale that expertly blends history and fiction (and even the supernatural), \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e explores grief, loss, life, death * Buzzfeed Year Ahead in Books *\u003cbr\u003eA historical novel like no other – a supernatural ensemble extravaganza of awesome intricacy and somewhat perplexing purpose ... A feat of style ... A polyphonic spree that spins the head -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGeorge Saunders makes you feel as though you are reading fiction for the first time\u003c\/b\u003e * Khaled Hosseini *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA cacophonous, genre-busting book inspired by the death of Abraham Lincoln's young son\u003c\/b\u003e * Metro *\u003cbr\u003eA morally passionate, serious writer ... He will be read long after these times have passed * Zadie Smith *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHe makes the all-but-impossible look effortless. We're lucky to have him\u003c\/b\u003e * Jonathan Franzen *\u003cbr\u003eAn astoundingly tuned voice – graceful, dark, authentic and funny * Thomas Pynchon *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSaunders is a writer of arresting brilliance and originality, with a sure sense of his material and apparently inexhaustible resources of voice ... Scary, hilarious and unforgettable\u003c\/b\u003e * Tobias Wolff *\u003cbr\u003eThere is no one better, no one  more essential * Dave Eggers *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFew people cut as hard or deep as Saunders does\u003c\/b\u003e * Junot Diaz *\u003cbr\u003eSaunders is a true original - restlessly inventive, yet deeply humane * Jennifer Egan *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReading George Saunders is, it's safe to say, like no other literary experience\u003c\/b\u003e * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eNo one writes more powerfully than George Saunders about the lost, the unlucky, the disenfranchised -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003eFunny, poignant – in flashes, deeply moving – light as a feather and consistently weird -- Hari Kunzru\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThere is really no one like him. He is an original – but everyone knows that\u003c\/b\u003e -- Lorrie Moore\u003cbr\u003eSwings from hilarious to crushing and back again with astonishing dexterity … An exceptional novel … Believe the hype * Chicago Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003eStrange, profound, melancholy … In the final of \u003ci\u003eLincoln of the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e, the realities of death and loss are faced head-on ... Historical fiction will never be the same * Newsday *\u003cbr\u003eThe author may have set out to write his first novel, but the work he completed is a genre unto itself\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e * The Atlantic *\u003cbr\u003eAn unsentimental novel of Shakespearean proportions, gorgeously stuffed with tragic characters, bawdy humor, terrifying visions, throat-catching tenderness, and a galloping narrative * Elle *\u003cbr\u003eOne of the strangest books of mainstream fiction around, competing only with some of Saunders's own story collection for unbridled inventiveness * GQ *\u003cbr\u003eA matterlightblooming phenomenon. Loud and big. Exploding with grief and, more so, hope. And better left undescribed until you yourself reach the end * Time *\u003cbr\u003eIt’s only February but this will undoubtedly be considered one of the best books of 2017 * Huffington Post *\u003cbr\u003eWonderfully bizarre and hilariously terrifying examination of the ability to live and love * Poets \u0026amp; Writers *\u003cbr\u003eMoving and inventive tour de force * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eFiction taken to a new realm, and a work of sheer brilliance * GQ *\u003cbr\u003eThis astounding novel pitches you into the strangest of places ... Brilliant * Psychologies *\u003cbr\u003eDevastatingly moving * People *\u003cbr\u003eAlong with the wonderfully bizarre, empathy abounds in \u003ci\u003eLincoln\u003c\/i\u003e * Time *\u003cbr\u003eA strange, wise novel, truer in its expression than many ostensibly historical novels * New Humanist *\u003cbr\u003eTremendously moving ... Surpasses all expectations. This is a masterpiece * Sunday Express *\u003cbr\u003eAn urgently political, profoundly moral book, albeit one so playful and so fantastical that the reader may hardly notice * Economist *\u003cbr\u003eA joyous, comically macabre exploration of love, death and loss ... Bursting with life -- Book of the Week * Bristol Post *\u003cbr\u003eSaunders is defined by a crackling, electric kind of empathy; by the kind of humbling understanding that simply comes from trying to look further, understand more, know deeper -- Joseph Earp * The Brag *\u003cbr\u003eA hands-down masterpiece – the subject of Abraham Lincoln and the genius of this author is a perfect union … I wept while reading this book. It is singular – I’ve never read anything quite like it -- Jeffrey Tambor * International New York Times *\u003cbr\u003eI literally couldn’t put it down … Hilarious to poignant to really moving * Irish Country *\u003cbr\u003eSurprising, daring, emotionally wrenching and warm-hearted * Sunday Times, Summer Reading, ‘Our Top Five’ *\u003cbr\u003eFact and fiction mingle in this affecting portrait of a grieving president * Financial Times, Summer Reading *\u003cbr\u003eBest known for his critically acclaimed short stories, this is Saunders’ first full-length novel, told with tenderness, imagination and wit * Zoe Apostolides, Daily Telegraph, Summer Reading *\u003cbr\u003eIt’s like a gothic, American \u003ci\u003eUnder Milk Wood\u003c\/i\u003e * The Times, Summer Reading *\u003cbr\u003eFilled with wit and sadness … It is an immensely powerful work. In the hands of the right imagination, the horror of individual loss can become an extraordinarily humane exploration of the beauty and the value of life, however painful * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eI met the amazing George Saunders at a recent festival and can’t wait to read \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e * Anne Enright, Irish Times *\u003cbr\u003eGeorge Saunders’s \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e is an extraordinary act of poignant literary virtuosity about love, death, ghosts and history, starring the grieving president * Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard, Summer Reading *\u003cbr\u003eI was won over by the sheer brio, writerly flourish and humanity of \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e by George Saunders, which imagines a disputatious convocation of the dead observing the US president as he mourns his son * Nick Curtis, Evening Standard, Summer Reading *\u003cbr\u003eFrom his short stories, we might have expected Saunders’s long-awaited first novel to be some sprawling vision of a future America. In fact, it’s a historical novel – albeit one like no other … It’s an admirable feat of style * Daily Telegraph, Summer Reading *\u003cbr\u003eI’ll be working my way on backwards through George Saunders, having been hooked conclusively by \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo, \u003c\/i\u003etonal whimsies and all. I’m presently on \u003ci\u003eTenth of December, \u003c\/i\u003ebut I expect to have reached \u003ci\u003eThe Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil \u003c\/i\u003eby the time we go on holiday * Francis Spufford, Guardian, Summer Reading *\u003cbr\u003eIt revolves around the ghost of Abraham Lincoln’s son, who died aged 11, and his fellows in the graveyard. There’s no single narrator, but hundreds of different voices instead * Daily Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eUnfolding in the graveyard over a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e is a thrilling exploration of death, grief and the deeper meaning and possibilities of life * Irish Times *\u003cbr\u003eHuge excitement greeted this debut novel from the US short-story master. Abraham Lincoln mourns his dead son, while other spirits in the cemetery, hovering between life and death * Guardian (Review) *\u003cbr\u003ePicture a less fiery Purgatory with quirky ghost from Edward Gorey materializing in the official video of Michael Jackson’s Thriller and you get a flavour of this darkly comic metaphysical tale … Saunders combines the larky and the macabre to wondrous effect … Skilful juxtaposition of multiple viewpoints creates both knockabout humour and deep anguish … Gloriously bonkers -- Allison Pearson * Sunday Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eIt’s impossible to read\u003ci\u003e Lincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e and not think of America’s current convulsions, of the impossibility of reconciling personal and public duty, of the harrowing, hollowing nature of irreversible loss -- Alex Clark * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eFantastical, funny and deeply affecting ... At a time when America is divided, the book drills down to its early rupture … Saunders’ project has always been one of radical empathy: to forge connections through the most unlikely means and in the most unpromising contexts. In this book there is warmth mixed into the weirdness; moral force behind the grotesquerie; and wild humour amid the tragedy. One can safely say there’s never been a novel like it -- Justine Jordan * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eIn all his work, Saunders displays a knack for rendering abstract concepts with a specificity that seems both fantastical and familiar. No matter how strange the world of his fiction, at its heart is always something sentimentally recognisable … He lets you see the small moments of transition that a heart needs to keep belief alive. At its heart, \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e is an exploration of empathy -- Paula Cocozza * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eOne of the year’s most original and electrifying novels * Economist, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eFew things live up to their hype, but the first novel by American short-story writer George Saunders, which won the Booker Prize, is a rare work of modern genius. Innovative, compelling, moving and amusing, his story of squabbling spirits in the cemetery where Abraham Lincoln has just laid to rest his young son captures the human condition in a way only the greatest novelists can. Yes, it’s that good -- Andrew Johnson * Independent, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eThe renowned short-story writer combined various forms from historical letters, to footnotes to comic dialogue, into a moving – if not entirely cohesive – story about loss, grief and our unwillingness to let go * Irish Times, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eYou’ve never read anything like it. George Saunders takes risks. The risks he takes are always playful and wise ... The way he does things is almost spiritual, which is interesting – you don’t see that much these days -- Anne Enright * Irish Examiner, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eA haunting tour de force ... At once funny, heart-breaking and utterly original * Tablet, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eTo nominate standout books I only had to think for a nanosecond: with \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e George Saunders takes the novel by the scruff of its neck, shakes loose then reassembles every single component: voice, structure, plot, characterisation, even layout. It's a brilliant and awe-inspiring performance, blackly comic, deeply moving, unforgettable -- Debra Adelaide * Sydney Morning Herald, Books of the Year 2017 *","brand":"George Saunders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48745900343513,"sku":"9781408871775","price":22.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0502\/9530\/8441\/files\/71bUaopK52L._SL1500_38cb5efe-ce8b-4c06-b697-29656f0afbb7.jpg?v=1779869585","url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/lincoln-in-the-bardo-winner-of-the-man-booker-prize-2017-9781408871775","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}