Vigil
From the Booker Prize-winning author of 'Lincoln in the Bardo'
Published on 27. January 2026
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-1-5266-2430-7 (ISBN)
Description
**THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**
'The first must-read book of the year' Vogue
'Resonates deeply in our fractious, selfish age' Independent
'One of America's most distinguished and original writers' Spectator
Order the latest book from the Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo - a playful, wise, electric novel taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO, in the twilight hours of his life, as he is ferried from this world into the next
What a lovely home I found myself plummeting toward. . .
Not for the first time - in fact, for the 343rd time - Jill 'Doll' Blaine finds herself crashing down to earth, head-first, rear-up, to accompany her latest charge into the afterlife. She soon realises however that this man is not quite like the others.
For powerful oil tycoon K.J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold life, and the world is better for it... isn't it?
As death approaches, a cast of worldly and otherworldly visitors arrive. Crowds of people and animals - alive and dead - materialise, birds swarm the dying man's room, and associates from decades past show up, all clamouring for a reckoning.
In this electric novel brimming with explosive imagination, George Saunders confronts the biggest issues of our time with his trademark humour and warmth, spinning a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the inevitable question: who else could we be but exactly who we are?
Vigil was no. 10 in the Sunday Times Hardback Fiction chart and no. 1 in the New York Times Hardcover Fiction chart, w/e 1 February
'The first must-read book of the year' Vogue
'Resonates deeply in our fractious, selfish age' Independent
'One of America's most distinguished and original writers' Spectator
Order the latest book from the Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo - a playful, wise, electric novel taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO, in the twilight hours of his life, as he is ferried from this world into the next
What a lovely home I found myself plummeting toward. . .
Not for the first time - in fact, for the 343rd time - Jill 'Doll' Blaine finds herself crashing down to earth, head-first, rear-up, to accompany her latest charge into the afterlife. She soon realises however that this man is not quite like the others.
For powerful oil tycoon K.J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold life, and the world is better for it... isn't it?
As death approaches, a cast of worldly and otherworldly visitors arrive. Crowds of people and animals - alive and dead - materialise, birds swarm the dying man's room, and associates from decades past show up, all clamouring for a reckoning.
In this electric novel brimming with explosive imagination, George Saunders confronts the biggest issues of our time with his trademark humour and warmth, spinning a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the inevitable question: who else could we be but exactly who we are?
Vigil was no. 10 in the Sunday Times Hardback Fiction chart and no. 1 in the New York Times Hardcover Fiction chart, w/e 1 February
Reviews / Votes
A wild ride through recent history, otherworldly reunions and good and evil - suitably big themes for one of America's most distinguished and original writers * Spectator * A tender morality tale ... intrigue thrums everywhere * Observer * The first must-read book of the year * Vogue * Faulkner meets Citizen Kane... such is Saunders' skill and empathetic imagination that the questions raised by his concocted other world... generally prove more mysterious than mystifying * Financial Times * Staggering... Saunders has outdone himself with this endlessly irreverent work of art * Publishers Weekly * Vigil... moves into even more anarchic and funny territory than that 2017 Booker-winning masterpiece with this new novel's unhinged spirits and pitiful ghosts... a meditation on the manipulative nature of modern language... resonates deeply in our fractious, selfish age * Independent * A magnificent expansion of consciousness... Saunders has crafted a novel that feels deeply resonant, especially in these fractious times * Kirkus Reviews * Exquisitely strange and beautiful, devastating, and so, so funny. Nobody but George Saunders writes like this * Meg Mason * With acuity and explosive imagination, Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time: the menace of corporate greed * i Paper * An imaginative, highly entertaining homage to A Christmas Carol * Mail on Sunday * George Saunders, has produced his own riff on the story of George Bailey. Like Capra's film, Vigil is a superbly wrought bit of sentimental fantasy that shades gradually into something darker and more troubling * Irish Times * The prose zips with the author's trademark wisecracks and quick-fire repartee ... at a time when doomsayers predict the demise of the novel - destined, supposedly, to be seen off by glitzier distractions and dwindling attention spans - Mr Saunders has a recipe for fiction's survival, as well as a rationale for reading it. Finding new ways to tell stories with words on a page, his work nudges forward the boundaries of the form. He powers his empathy machine with restless invention * Economist * He writes in a way that is so engaging and beautiful ... so immersive and incredible but also brutal * Viv Groskop * He boils down this vast global problem to an emotion ... he has an enormous empathy that extends to all sorts of people * Tom Sutcliffe * Anyone familiar with Saunders's work - either Lincoln or his several books of tragicomic short stories that preceded it - will know to expect something unusual, and he doesn't disappoint * Irish Times * Formidable. The sentences snap and pivot; jokes arrive, then suddenly float into a colder register. He can turn celestial paperwork into something like tragedy ... a theatrical moral fable * Irish Independent * Elegant and witty ... Vigil is a finely crafted novel that explores comfort, repentance, and the path to redemption, which must be sought again and again * Irish Examiner * Brimming with the compassion and insight that has won Saunders legion of fans, it eschews caricature in favour of profound empathy ... it's also funny and vivid and populated with endearing nutcases * Shakespeare & Co. podcast * It's an extraordinary book; the work of a modern master with a full-spectrum understanding of fantastic fiction * SFX * Shares hilarity with sadness and meditates on redemption - or, more pertinently, a lack of it ... demands more than a single read * Buzz * Vintage Saunders * Restless Magazine * This century's Vonnegut ... we will be reading it again and again - and if that doesn't tell you everything you need to know... * Bookmunch * The real moral of the story comes from its exposure of the excuses and rationalisations by which Boone justifies his actions * Otago Daily Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
372 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-2430-7 (9781526624307)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2026
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€14.49
Available for download
Person
George Saunders is the author of thirteen books, including Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Booker Prize. Three of his books - Pastoralia, Tenth of December, and Lincoln in the Bardo - were chosen for the New York Times' list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Saunders hosts the popular Story Club on Substack, and in 2013, he was named one of the world's 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine. In 2025, he received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.