Vigil: A Novel

by George Saunders

1 pages, Audio CD

Published March 17, 2026

About the author

George Saunders was born December 2, 1958 and raised on the south side of Chicago. In 1981 he received a B.S. in Geophysical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. He worked at Radian International, an environmental engineering firm in Rochester, NY as a technical writer and geophysical engineer from 1989 to 1996. He has also worked in Sumatra on an oil exploration geophysics crew, as a doorman in Beverly Hills, a roofer in Chicago, a convenience store clerk, a guitarist in a Texas country-and-western band, and a knuckle-puller in a West Texas slaughterhouse.

After reading in People magazine about the Master's program at Syracuse University, he applied. Mr. Saunders received an MA with an emphasis in creative writing in 1988. His thesis advisor was Doug Unger.

He has been an Assistant Professor, Syracuse University Creative Writing Program since 1997. He has also been a Visiting Writer at Vermont Studio Center, University of Georgia MayMester Program, University of Denver, University of Texas at Austin, St. Petersburg Literary Seminar (St. Petersburg, Russia, Summer 2000), Brown University, Dickinson College, Hobart & William Smith Colleges.

He conducted a Guest Workshop at the Eastman School of Music, Fall 1995, and was an Adjunct Professor at Saint John Fisher College, Rochester, New York, 1990-1995; and Adjunct Professor at Siena College, Loudonville, New York in Fall 1989.

He is married and has two children.

His favorite charity is a project to educate Tibetan refugee children in Nepal. Information on this can be found at http://www.tibetan-buddhist.org/index...

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5. Mercifully this audio book was only 6 hours long. I loved Lincoln in the Bardo. It is one of my all time favorite reads. I recommended that book to many people. Sadly, I can’t do the same for this one. Saunders returns again to a story about people stuck in between death and life. But this one is much less successful. An oil baron is on his death parade and a parade of people from his past as well as current come to his bedside. Narrated by a ghost who is also stuck in the bardo but whose job it is to provide comfort to those who are transitioning. You get her back story also as she feels she has been forgotten. Along with all this you occasionally perk into the next door neighbor’s yard where a lavish wedding is taking place. I don’t understand this juxtaposition. Maybe it is to contrast happy milestones of one’s life (wedding/celebrations) with the sadder ones (death). Anyway this book didn’t work for me. The one positive is it is only 6 hours long. A nice length for an audio. Read other two and three star reviews for more details as to why this one doesn’t work. I’ll conclude with: “Please, Mr Saunders, let this subject matter go. You should have quit with your masterpiece.”