George Saunders: Jesus would disagree with Christian nationalism | The Exchange

George Saunders discusses faith: in his writing, as a means of optimism, and as a political weapon in today’s world.

This is an episode of The Exchange, a podcast from the New Statesman.

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For decades, George Saunders was known for his short stories. In 2013, in a Time Magazine 100 most influential people listing, he was described as “the best short-story writer in English".

But then something changed, both for Saunders and for the literary world.

In 2017, he released his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, a reimagining of President Abraham Lincoln’s grief in the aftermath of his son Willie’s death.

The bardo is a concept borrowed from Saunders ’ adopted faith, Buddhism—an "intermediate state" between death and reincarnation.

In his latest novel, Vigil, Saunders returns to the in-between - this time through a dying oil barron, grappling with his morality at the 11th hour in a burning world.