Vigil

An electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling,Booker PrizeΓÇôwinning author of Lincoln in the Bardotaking 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 timeJill ΓÇ£DollΓÇ¥ Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earthreconstituting as she fallsright down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest chargeyet another soul she must usher into the afterlifeand lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion. She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her chargesas a rulehave been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this chargeshe soon discoversisnΓÇÖt like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoledbecause he has nothing to regret. He lived a bigboldepic lifeand the world is better for it. IsnΓÇÖt it? Vigil transports uscareeningthrough the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldlyalive and dead)clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying manΓÇÖs room; a black calf grazes on the love seat; a man from a distantdrought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for BooneΓÇÖs postdeath future. With the wisdomplayfulnessand explosive imagination weΓÇÖve come to expectGeorge Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our timeΓÇöthe menace of corporate greedthe toll of capitalismthe environmental perils of progressΓÇöandin the processspins a tale that encompasses life and deathgood and eviland the thorny question of absolution.