VIGIL by George Saunders (epub)(Fiction)

VIGIL by George Saunders (epub)(Fiction)
Author: George Saunders
Full title: Vigil: A Novel
Length: 192 pages
Release date: January 27, 2026
Genre/Categories: Fiction; Literary; Satire; Experimental

Jill “Doll” Blaine, a spectral comforter who has guided 343 souls through their final moments since her own death decades ago, arrives for her toughest assignment: unrepentant oil tycoon K. J. Boone, who boasts of his “big, bold” life and denies any need for regret. As Boone’s last night unfolds in chaotic bursts, surreal figures materialize—a drought‑ravaged villager, ghostly business cronies scheming afterlife oil deals, swarming birds, a black calf on the love seat—clashing with a nearby wedding party, all demanding a reckoning amid his mansion’s opulence. Saunders blends humor, moral complexity, and explosive imagination to probe capitalism’s toll, environmental devastation, human frailty, and the slim hope for absolution.