George Saunders’ second novel is coming next year.
Random House will publish Vigil in the winter, the press announced in a news release. In the book, the publisher says, Saunders “spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.”
Saunders worked as an engineer before making his literary debut in 1996 with the story collection CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. He followed that up with several more story collections, including Pastoralia, In Persuasion Nation, and Tenth of December, all drawing praise from critics.
In 2017, he published his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, inspired by the illness and death of President Abraham Lincoln’s third son; it won the Booker Prize. His most recent book, the story collection Liberation Day, was published in 2022.
Vigil will follow K.J. Boone, an oil company CEO on his deathbed who is guided into the afterlife by Jill “Doll” Blaine, a woman who died young in 1976. “Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of an epic, complicated life,” Random House says.
“I found myself wondering about that generation of climate change deniers who, through obfuscation and spin, put progress on hold for twenty or thirty years, and are now old and passing away,” Saunders said in a statement. “I wondered whether such a person might, at the end of his life, feel inclined to repentance. If he had a chance to explain himself, would he try? Could he even do it? What I loved about writing this book was how it stretched me. I’m always hoping a book will lead me into new territory—of voice, intensity, moral positioning—and Vigil really did that. Writing it felt like a real adventure.”
Vigil is slated for publication on January 27, 2026.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
