Lincoln in the Bardo

By: George Saunders

Narrated by: Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, George Saunders, Carrie Brownstein, Miranda July, Lena Dunham, full cast

Winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize

In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other, for no one but Saunders could conceive it.

February 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 11-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 returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy's body.

From 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 thrilling 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.

The 166-person full cast features award-winning actors and musicians, as well as a number of Saunders' family, friends, and members of his publishing team, including, in order of their appearance:

Nick Offerman as HANS VOLLMAN
David Sedaris as ROGER BEVINS III
Carrie Brownstein as ISABELLE PERKINS
George Saunders as THE REVEREND EVERLY THOMAS
Miranda July as MRS. ELIZABETH CRAWFORD
Lena Dunham as ELISE TRAYNOR
Ben Stiller as JACK MANDERS vJulianne Moore as JANE ELLIS
Susan Sarandon as MRS. ABIGAIL BLASS
Bradley Whitford as LT. CECIL STONE
Bill Hader as EDDIE BARON
Megan Mullally as BETSY BARON
Rainn Wilson as PERCIVAL “DASH” COLLIER
Jeff Tweedy as CAPTAIN WILLIAM PRINCE
Kat Dennings as MISS TAMARA DOOLITTLE
Jeffrey Tambor as PROFESSOR EDMUND BLOOMER
Mike O’Brien as LAWRENCE T. DECROIX
Keegan-Michael Key as ELSON FARWELL
Don Cheadle as THOMAS HAVENS
and Patrick Wilson as STANLEY “PERFESSER” LIPPERT
with Kirby Heyborne as WILLIE LINCOLN,
Mary Karr as MRS. ROSE MILLAND,
and Cassandra Campbell as Your Narrator.

©2017 George Saunders (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

Fantastic performance

While the book might not be my favourite, the cast made it a worthwhile listen!

do not listen to audio without book

in your hands story not designed for stand alone audio enjoyment need three more words

Great book but took study guide to understand at first.

This was a really great book however it took a study guide to understand the first few chapters as it isn’t very clear who is talking. Once you understand and know the voice for the character then it makes for a lot better listening. This is the first fiction book I’ve listened to on Audible as I normally listen to non-fiction but was very impressed and highly recommend this book.

Perfection, what more need I say except thank you

What more need I say, except thank you to the author and voices. I think I will listen again straight away.

Not for the faint hearted

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

it was challenging but also funny, moving and informative

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

there was so many of them, but the performances were all great

Any additional comments?

If you don't want to be challenged by innovation in story telling this book is not for you

Just Too Depressing!

Well written, ok. Well read, yes. But just not a subject that should ever be written about. I do not want to read about a poor, innocent young boy suffering in death. A terrible, depressing, miserable, gruesome, nasty, hideous, repulsive book! Unless this is what you get off on, avoid.

awful

This is the first audible book that I have found completely abysmal. what a load of drivel. I struggled through, hoping it would improve which it never did.

A dismal misfire

After listening to the first hour of this dismal misfire I decided that enough was enough and I will not be listening to the rest. Why suffer further punishment?

The puzzle is that I have liked and enjoyed many of the short stories by the author. The problem is that the qualities of warmth, dark humour and deft invention that so enliven the stories are not present this time. Instead we are given a lugubrious slog through a work of sour seeming fantasy about the aftermath of the death of Lincoln's son.

To be fair, it may be a book best read in the traditional way. This multi-voiced audio book is more like a radio play than a conventional audio book and the numerous voices may function to further distance the listener from material that is already cold and seeming ghoulish (and not in a good way).