Lincoln in the Bardo

"From the seed of historical truth that is the death of President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son Willie, George Saunders spins a story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm ...

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."--Amazon.com.