In 'Vigil,' novelist George Saunders spins a spirited new tale about human corruption and redemption

Our guest for the hour today on Midday is George Saunders, one of the most intriguing, singular, and popular authors on the current literary scene.  He’s written two novels and a novella. In 2017, one of those novels, Lincoln in the Bardo, won the coveted Man Booker Prize.  He is celebrated for six collections of short stories, and works of non-fiction that include a commencement speech on kindness and a master class on Russian short stories. His Substack, Story Club, has more than 300,000 subscribers.   Recently, Saunders and Midday host Tom Hall had a conversation in the Writer's Live Series at the Enoch Pratt Library here in Baltimore.  They talked about his new novel, Vigil, a fantastic peroration on life and death, accountability and legacy, fate and meaning.  Vigil is a masterpiece. It resonates with his Lincoln in the Bardo in that spirits are involved, and it confronts big questions in such a unique and incomparable way as to make those questions, even when left unanswered, land freshly and powerfully. Before the event at the Pratt, George Saunders joined Tom in the Midday studio for an hour-long conversation about Vigil.  Because their talk was recorded earlier, we can’t take any calls or online comments today.