George Saunders at Back Bay Event Center

Harvard Book Store welcomes George Saunders—bestselling author of thirteen books including the Man Booker Prize-winner Lincoln in the Bardo—for a discussion of his highly anticipated new novel Vigil.

Ticketing

Tickets include admission for one and one hardcover copy of Vigil pre-signed by George Saunders. Following the presentation, Saunders will personalize books.

Seating for this event is general admission and not assigned.

Note: Books bundled with tickets may only be picked up at the venue the night of the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand. Ticket holders who are unable to attend the event will be able to pick up their book at Harvard Book Store up to 30 days following the event. This offer expires after 30 days. Please note we cannot guarantee signed copies will be available to ticket holders who do not attend the event.

Additional copies of Vigil, as well as Saunders' previous titles will be available for purchase at the event. This event will take place at Back Bay Events Center, located at 180 Berkeley St, Boston, MA. Doors to the venue will open approximately at 5:30pm. The presentation will begin at 7pm and will last roughly one hour.

Please be aware, large bags or backpacks will not be permitted. If you must carry a bag, please use a small wristlet or handheld wallet, or clear plastic, vinyl or PVC. All items brought into this event are subject to inspection.

About Vigil

An electric novel from the #1 New York Times best-selling, Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, 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.

Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge—yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife—and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.

She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K.J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?

Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead), clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room; a black calf grazes on the loveseat; a man from a distant drought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s post-death future.

With the wisdom, playfulness, and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.

Bio

George Saunders is the author of thirteen books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize, and five collections of stories, including Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the recent collection Liberation Day (selected by former President Obama as one of his ten favorite books of 2022). Three of Saunders’s books—Pastoralia, Tenth of December, and Lincoln in the Bardo—were chosen for The New York Times’s list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Saunders hosts the popular Story Club on Substack, which grew out of his book on the Russian short story, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. In 2013, he was named one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People by Time. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.

Masking Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.