Liberation Day
by George Saunders· 2022
A collection of stories—the author's first in ten years—ranging from dystopian near-futures to character pieces. This collection from the author of Lincoln in the Bardo explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and what it means to live in community with others. These stories encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, fantasy and reality.
'Love Letter' is a missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that explores obligations to ideals, ourselves, and each other. 'Ghoul' is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows a character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his 'reality.' In 'Mother's Day', two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. In 'Elliott Spencer', an eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed—his memory 'scraped'—a victim of a scheme in which people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters.
Together, these nine stories view the world even in the most absurd of circumstances.
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A collection of stories—the author's first in ten years—ranging from dystopian near-futures to character pieces. This collection from the author of Lincoln in the Bardo explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and what it means to live in community with others. These stories encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, fantasy and reality. 'Love Letter' is a missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that explores obligations to ideals, ourselves, and each other. 'Ghoul' is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows a character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his 'reality.' In 'Mother's Day', two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. In 'Elliott Spencer', an eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed—his memory 'scraped'—a victim of a scheme in which people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters. Together, these nine stories view the world even in the most absurd of circumstances.