Our Favorite Books of 2017
What astonishes us about this year's best books is their audacity, their inventiveness, and their ability to delight and devastate in equal measure. In a field rich with powerful voices, these spoke to us most urgently.
By Natalie Beach, Hamilton Cain, Leigh Haber, Claire Luchette
2 of 11
Lincoln in the Bardo
By George Saunders
368 pages;
Random House
Grief
guts us all, but rarely has it been elucidated with such nuance and brilliance
as in Saunders's Civil War phantasmagoria. As the death toll escalates, Abraham
Lincoln wanders the graveyard where his son Willie has just been buried. There
he's haunted by a bevy of ghosts, including starched-collar clergymen, prim
Victorian ladies, vengeful slaves, and Willie himself. Heartrending yet somehow
hilarious, Saunders's zinger of an allegory holds a mirror to our perilous
current moment.
Published 11/10/2017
