Lincoln In The Bardo

Dua’s Monthly Read for October 2024

“I loved this unique, bold and compassionate book. At its heart, this is a story of one of the most famous men in history – President Abraham Lincoln – grieving for his dead son Willie, whose death foreshadows the hundreds of thousands of lives that are about to be lost in the American Civil War.

“The action takes place over just 24 hours and is narrated by a cacophony of monologuing, bickering ghosts in a graveyard. Yes, you read that right, and yes, it does take a while to settle into this unusual style. But stick with it and your mind will be well and truly blown.

“As we are introduced to the inhabitants of the ‘Bardo’ – a limbo state between death and whatever comes next – we are invited to walk a mile in the shoes of enslavers and enslaved, grifters, murderers and priests, who all represent a country at war with itself.

“There is no one writing today who can match George Saunders for compassion and empathy. The very last page still replays in my mind. The voices of these spirits – the wretched and the brave, and the dead boy Willie Lincoln – will stay with me forever” – Dua Lipa

Available on Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble