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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Barely any
Deaths depicted throughout — the ghosts are all dealing with their own deaths; Civil War context
Language
Some
Some profanity throughout
Sexual Content
Some
Some sexual content in the ghost narratives
Substance Use
Some
Drinking as part of the historical period
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Strong psychological content: the novel is entirely about grief, the inability to accept death, and what a man's public duty costs him personally
What this book is about
On the night of February 24, 1862, Abraham Lincoln visits the Georgetown cemetery crypt where his recently deceased eleven-year-old son Willie lies. He is observed by dozens of ghosts — stuck in a limbo they refuse to name as death — who have strong opinions about what Lincoln should do and what the boy's fate should be. George Saunders's Booker Prize-winning novel is narrated through multiple ghost voices and excerpts from historical documents, deeply moving and formally unlike any other.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Multiple characters dealing with and refusing to accept their deaths
A child's death is the emotional center of the novel
Reader Verification
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