If you liked
Books like Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders
Lincoln in the Bardo is George Saunders's strange, beautiful first novel, set over one night in a graveyard as a chorus of the dead watch Abraham Lincoln grieve his young son. It is experimental, funny and unexpectedly moving. If you want more formally daring fiction with a huge heart, read on.
The shortlist
What to read next
Tenth of Decemberby George Saunders
“Tenth of December by George Saunders 2013 review. Ten stories of literary fantasy and American social satire. Story Prize winner and Saunders's structural breakthrough.”
Gileadby Marilynne Robinson
“Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 2004 review. A seventy-six-year-old Iowa Congregationalist minister writes a letter to his seven-year-old son. Pulitzer Prize winner.”
Cloud Cuckoo Landby Anthony Doerr
“Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr 2021 review. Five characters across three timelines connected by a fictional ancient Greek novel. Doerr's follow-up to All the Light We Cannot See.”
The Nickel Boysby Colson Whitehead
“The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 2019 review. Two boys at the segregated Nickel Academy reform school in 1960s Florida, based on the real Dozier School. Pulitzer Prize 2020 and the canonical contemporary American novel on institutional violence against Black children.”
Small Things Like Theseby Claire Keegan
“Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 2021 review. A 1985 Irish coal merchant discovers what's happening at the local Magdalene laundry. Booker Prize shortlist.”
Sing, Unburied, Singby Jesmyn Ward
“Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward 2017 review. A thirteen-year-old biracial boy and his drug-addicted mother drive to Parchman Penitentiary. National Book Award winner.”
FAQ
Common questions about Lincoln in the Bardo read-alikes
- I want more George Saunders.
- Tenth of December is the essential companion, the story collection that made his name, full of the same mix of formal invention, dark comedy and startling tenderness. If Lincoln in the Bardo's voice grabbed you, start there.
- I want another novel about grief and the soul.
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson takes death, faith and letting go as seriously as Saunders does, in a quieter register. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward fills its world with the dead the way the bardo does. Both share the metaphysical charge.
- I want the inventive structure and the sweep.
- Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr braids far-flung timelines around a fragile old story, chorus-like in its own way. It is the pick if the many-voiced construction was what you loved.
- I want short, luminous, morally serious fiction.
- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead both do enormous emotional work in few pages. Neither is experimental like Saunders, but both share the compassion under the craft.
The original