Vigil: A Novel

"As with Lincoln in the Bardo , Vigil follows one person’s transition from life to the afterlife. The novel unfolds at the bedside of an oil company CEO, as angelic beings attempt to force him to reflection. “I found myself wondering about that generation of climate change deniers who, through obfuscation and spin, put progress on hold for twenty or thirty years, and are now old and passing away,” as Saunders explained in a statement accompanying the book’s announcement. All of which sounds rather thoughtful and bittersweet—but, this being Saunders, the blurb also features the words “careening”, “hurtling”, “clamoring”… Buckle up, in other words: it’s going to be a wild ride. Saunders himself is an interesting man, who has spoken very honestly about his evolution from an “Ayn Rand Republican” and oil prospector to revered creative writing professor at Syracuse. But his fiction goes beyond honesty, beyond perceptiveness, and into something much weirder and more mysterious—and, I think, more profound. Don’t miss it."