Liberation Day

George Saunders Returns with His First Short Story Collection in a Decade From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo comes a long-awaited collection of short stories-the first in ten years. "George Saunders's oblique, farcical, tragic world will take the top of your head off, but it's worth it." -The Times MacArthur genius and Booker Prize-winner George Saunders returns with a masterful collection that grapples with the complexities of our increasingly troubled world. Following the success of his New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Tenth of December, Saunders, hailed as the "best short story writer in English" (Time), explores themes of power, ethics, and justice with his trademark wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned prose. These nine prismatic stories range from joy to despair, oppression to revolution, bizarre fantasy to brutal reality: Love Letter is a tender missive from a grandfather to his grandson, set in a dystopian near-future, reminding us of our obligations to ideals, ourselves, and each other. Ghoul takes place in a Hell-themed underground amusement park in Colorado, where a lonely, morally complex character named Brian begins to question everything he knows about his 'reality.' In Mother's Day, two women who loved the same man face an existential reckoning during a hailstorm. Elliott Spencer follows an eighty-nine-year-old protagonist, brainwashed and reprogrammed, who becomes a pawn in a political protest scheme. These subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a compelling case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention as Saunders, even in the most absurd circumstances.