Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa From The Archives – Lincoln In The Bardo: George Saunders On Writing With Empathy, Listening To The Past & Finding Light In The Depths Of Grief
Jan 26, 2026
George Saunders, award-winning novelist known for Lincoln in the Bardo, talks about experimenting with form and writing through grief. He explains why he chose ghosts and a bardo-like afterlife, how the idea grew over decades, and how distinct voices and humor shape a mournful story. A lively, compassionate conversation about risk, craft, and finding light amid sorrow.
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Twenty-Year Spark Turned Secret Trial
- George Saunders discovered Willie Lincoln during a D.C. visit and imagined a book from that Pietà image of Lincoln holding his son.
- He shelved the idea for 20 years until he secretly trialed it on a six-month contract and the form revealed itself.
Form Solves The Narrative Problem
- Saunders used form as a solution to a storytelling problem, choosing ghosts to narrate private cemetery events.
- He mixed real historical text and invented citations to make the novel workable and distinct.
Bardo As Amplified Mind State
- The Bardo is a transitional mental space where unresolved desires intensify because the mind's tether is cut.
- Saunders frames his ghosts as stuck in amplified versions of their living regrets and denials.
