Lincoln in the Bardo

George Saunders' first full-length novel, "Lincoln in the Bardo," represents a bold departure from conventional historical fiction. Published in 2017 after decades of acclaimed short story collections, this experimental work centers on a single night in February 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln visited the Georgetown cemetery where his eleven-year-old son Willie had just been interred. The novel draws its title from the Tibetan Buddhist concept of the bardo, an intermediate state between death and rebirth, transforming a graveyard into a liminal space populated by restless spirits unable or unwilling to move on.

The narrative structure sets this work apart from traditional novels. Rather than following a single narrator or even a conventional multiple perspective format, Saunders constructs the story through a chorus of voices. Over one hundred characters speak throughout the book, primarily the dead residents of the cemetery who exist in a state of denial about their condition. These spirits refer to their coffins as sick-boxes and their graves as sick-mounds, clinging to the belief that they might yet return to their earthly lives. The text presents these voices in a script-like format, with character names preceding their dialogue or internal monologue, creating a polyphonic effect that might initially challenge readers accustomed to more linear storytelling.

Three primary ghost narrators emerge from this spectral crowd. Hans Vollman, a printer who died on the verge of consummating his marriage to a much younger wife, remains tethered to earth by unfulfilled desire. Roger Bevins III, who took his own life after a romantic rejection only to experience immediate regret, exists in a state of perpetual sensory appreciation for the world he left behind. The Reverend Everly Thomas serves as a counterpoint to these two, having glimpsed what he believes to be his own damnation and now existing in a state of theological despair. These three characters form an unlikely fellowship and serve as guides through the cemetery's strange society.

Interwoven with the ghost narratives are excerpts presented as historical sources: letters, diary entries, newspaper accounts, and biographical materials describing Lincoln, the Civil War context, and the night in question. Some of these excerpts come from actual historical documents, while others are invented by Saunders to create a composite picture of the event and era. These passages frequently contradict each other, offering competing versions of details as basic as the weather that night or the appearance of the White House. This technique underscores themes about the unreliability of historical record and the multiplicity of truth, while also grounding the fantastical cemetery scenes in historical reality.

The emotional core of the novel rests on Lincoln's grief and his reported return to the cemetery to hold his son's body. Willie Lincoln's spirit has arrived in the bardo, and the adult ghosts recognize that children rarely linger in this intermediate state. The presence of a living person in the cemetery, particularly one as historically significant as Lincoln, creates an unprecedented opportunity for the spirits to make contact with the living world. Their attempts to influence or communicate with the grieving president form the central action of the narrative.

Saunders uses this supernatural framework to explore profound themes of loss, attachment, and the American condition during a moment of national crisis. The spirits in the cemetery represent a cross-section of American society: wealthy and poor, black and white, young and old. Their individual stories reveal the violence, injustice, and human frailty of their era while also demonstrating common human longings that transcend historical moment. The novel draws implicit parallels between the personal grief of one father and the massive casualties of the Civil War, suggesting connections between private sorrow and collective trauma.

The experimental form demands active engagement from readers. The rapid shifts between voices and the unconventional formatting create a reading experience closer to poetry or drama than to typical prose fiction. This approach serves the novel's themes, as the fragmented, collective narration mirrors both the disoriented state of the bardo's inhabitants and the fractured nature of a nation at war with itself. The book challenges conventional expectations about plot, character development, and narrative authority while delivering genuine emotional resonance.

"Lincoln in the Bardo" earned significant recognition, winning the Man Booker Prize in 2017 and receiving widespread critical attention. The novel demonstrates Saunders' ability to translate the compassion, dark humor, and formal innovation of his short fiction into a longer format while tackling historical subject matter and timeless questions about mortality, compassion, and the stories people tell themselves about their lives and deaths.