During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln’s eleven-year-old son Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. Grief-stricken, Lincoln is said to return to the crypt to visit his son’s body. From this historical moment, George Saunders creates a powerful and imaginative story that moves beyond realism into the supernatural. Willie Lincoln becomes trapped in a transitional realm known as the bardo, where spirits linger, argue, and reflect on life and death. Lincoln in the Bardo unfolds over a single night and explores love, loss, and the struggle to let go, through a unique blend of historical fact, fiction, and multiple voices.