"Well, maybe I can make a mansion out of a series of linked yurts"
January 19, 2017 8:11 AM   Subscribe

The audiobook for George Saunders’s debut novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, will be narrated by Nick Offerman, Julianne Moore, Miranda July, Ben Stiller, Don Cheadle, Keegan Michael Key, David Sedaris, Susan Sarandon, Carrie Brownstein, a dozen other A-listers, top audiobook narrators, the author’s close friends and family, volunteers from Random House, and the author himself to form a 166 voice American chorale.

Penguin Random House Audio is applying for a Guinness World Record. Listen to a clip here.

The acclaimed short story writer's debut novel is about Abraham Lincoln mourning his son Willie in a graveyard full of ghosts.

Random House's page for Lincoln in the Bardo, including author interview.

LitHub asks (and doesn't really answer), "The First Truly Blockbuster Audiobook?"

ht Electric Literature

What's been released of the cast:

Nick Offerman as HANS VOLLMAN
David Sedaris as ROGER BEVINS III
Carrie Brownstein as ISABELLE PERKINS
George Saunders as THE REVEREND EVERLY THOMAS
Miranda July as MRS. ELIZABETH CRAWFORD
Lena Dunham as ELISE TRAYNOR
Ben Stiller as JACK MANDERS
Julianne Moore as JANE ELLIS
Susan Sarandon as MRS. ABIGAIL BLASS
Bradley Whitford as LT. CECIL STONE
Bill Hader as EDDIE BARON
Megan Mullally as BETSY BARON
Rainn Wilson as PERCIVAL “DASH” COLLIER
Jeff Tweedy as CAPTAIN WILLIAM PRINCE
Kat Dennings as MISS TAMARA DOOLITTLE
Jeffrey Tambor as PROFESSOR EDMUND BLOOMER
Mike O’Brien as LAWRENCE T. DECROIX
Keegan-Michael Key as ELSON FARWELL
Don Cheadle as THOMAS HAVENS
and
Patrick Wilson as STANLEY “PERFESSER” LIPPERT
with
Kirby Heyborne as WILLIE LINCOLN,
Mary Karr as MRS. ROSE MILLAND,
and Cassandra Campbell as Your Narrator

George Saunders previously on the blue.
posted by little onion (13 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've been looking forward to this book for most of last year since I learned about it. Very excited.
posted by Fizz at 8:18 AM on January 19, 2017


This is totally unlistenable but in a good way.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:23 AM on January 19, 2017


I've enjoyed his other writing, so put me in the "excited" column as well.

If there's a book in the house that we're both reading, it's in print and audio since Mr. Conspiracy is blind. This might be one of the ones where I forgo the print and just experience the audio version. I did that with World War Z - owing to how the book was structured, it lent itself to a large cast of narrators, and I quite enjoyed it that way.

This sounds like it'll be quite something.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:30 AM on January 19, 2017


Oh God I love George Saunders! Has everyone read The Very Persistent Gappers of Fripp? Its just about the best kids book ever written!
posted by WalkerWestridge at 8:37 AM on January 19, 2017


Reading about this book (which I just learned about right now) reminds me somehow of Spoon River Anthology (previously). I'd kill for a really great audiobook of SRA.

one of the ones where I forgo the print and just experience the audio version

As much as as I loved reading the Harry Potter series, the UK audiobooks are read most excellently by Stephen Fry. That was like having my favorite uncle read to me for days. Highly recommended.

(I'd also recommend the audiobook for Pynchon's Against The Day, which is something close to 50 hours of audiobook and is very well done and actually got me through the book, something which I'd never managed in print, but it's also the audiobook that burned me out on audiobooks, so I guess I'll put it on the map and say "Here There Be Dragons".)
posted by hippybear at 8:57 AM on January 19, 2017 [3 favorites]


Oops, forgot the link for the previous post about Spoon River Anthology.
posted by hippybear at 9:06 AM on January 19, 2017


I'm very confused after reading the articles and listening to the sample. Are characters switched mid-sentence?
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:06 AM on January 19, 2017


Yes, I believe they are. According to Electric Lit, it's "narrated from a cacophony of decidedly biased — and often conflicting — perspectives." Which, I think are like 97% ghosts.
posted by little onion at 9:11 AM on January 19, 2017


(There was an audiobook of SRA by Blackstone in 2002, "performed by Patrick Fraley with Edward Asner and a cast of 50 ; music composed by Kenni and performed with Joshua Zucker." My local library has it and I am putting in a request for it now. There's also a librivox recording of it, which you can take a flyer on if you want.)
posted by wenestvedt at 9:24 AM on January 19, 2017


Civalwarland; The discontent grows!
posted by mrdaneri at 10:36 AM on January 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


Awesome artifice. Now they need to triple the cast and do this with Finnegan's Wake.
posted by Bob Regular at 10:53 AM on January 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


Oh wow, this is amazing. I cannot wait to hear this. It makes me dare to dream that a movie will be made of this novel.

Now, if Saunders's short story "Jon" were made into a movie with such a similarly stellar ensemble, my head would explode.
posted by the matching mole at 2:08 PM on January 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


I actually have an audiobook of Finnegan's Wake, which I haven't listened to yet, but is sitting in all its glory in my iTunes library I'll dive into it someday, I'm sure.
posted by hippybear at 1:55 AM on January 20, 2017


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