{"title":"George Saunders","description":"George Saunders is the author of thirteen books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo,  which won the Booker Prize, and five collections of stories, including Tenth of December,  which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the recent collection Liberation Day (selected by former President Obama as one of his ten favorite books of 2022). Three of Saunders's books--Pastoralia, Tenth of December,  and Lincoln in the Bardo--were chosen for The New York Times's list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Saunders hosts the popular Story Club on Substack, which grew out of his book on the Russian short story, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. In 2013, he was named one of the world's 100 Most Influential People by Time. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.","products":[{"product_id":"vigil-hardcover","title":"Vigil - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn electric novel from the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo, \u003c\/i\u003e taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO in the twilight hours of his life as he is ferried from this world into the next\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNot for the first time, Jill \"Doll\" Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eShe has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn't like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn't it? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eVigil \u003c\/i\u003etransports us, careening, through the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead), clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man's room; a black calf grazes on the love seat; a man from a distant, drought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone's postdeath future. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith the wisdom, playfulness, and explosive imagination we've come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time--the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress--and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101216674015,"sku":"9780525509622","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/7DjGO6chcd9780525509622.webp?v=1781068488"},{"product_id":"lincoln-in-the-bardo-paperback","title":"Lincoln in the Bardo - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e#1 \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER - WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe \u003cb\u003e\"devastatingly moving\" (\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e) \u003c\/b\u003efirst novel from the author of \u003ci\u003eTenth of December\u003c\/i\u003e 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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed One of \u003ci\u003ePaste\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e'\u003c\/b\u003es Best Novels of the Decade - Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post, USA Today, \u003c\/i\u003eand Maureen Corrigan, NPR - One of \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e's Ten Best Novels of the Year - A \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eNotable Book \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e- \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eO: The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Books of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eFebruary 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e 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?\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A luminous feat of generosity and humanism.\"--Colson Whitehead, \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e \"A masterpiece.\"\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eZadie Smith\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101529477343,"sku":"9780812985405","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/bk83Z3BkTnl2N2VVZVBFeTR4SlZ6dz09.webp?v=1781071667"},{"product_id":"vigil-paperback","title":"Vigil - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn electric novel from the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo, \u003c\/i\u003e taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO in the twilight hours of his life as he is ferried from this world into the next\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNot for the first time, Jill \"Doll\" Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eShe has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn't like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn't it? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eVigil \u003c\/i\u003etransports us, careening, through the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead), clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man's room; a black calf grazes on the love seat; a man from a distant, drought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone's postdeath future. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith the wisdom, playfulness, and explosive imagination we've come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time--the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress--and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102203351263,"sku":"9798217344901","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/AcNx2w-X7Q9798217344901.webp?v=1781079135"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/george-saunders.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}