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Jill “Doll” Blaine is hurtling toward a mansion in Dallas to appear, as much as she can appear, at the death bed of her latest charge: an 87-year-old oil CEO named K. J. Boone. Jill’s role is to provide comfort to those in their dying moments, a role she has played 343 times. But this time, things go differently.
Usually, the people Jill visits on their death beds are ready to be comforted and make peace with their lives as they move toward the light. Or whatever. But Boone refuses Jill’s presence, insisting, through their spectral conversations, that he has nothing to regret and no need for comfort.
“To comfort one who remains willfully ignorant of what he has done is to provide no comfort at all,” says another spirit from the world Jill inhabits. “If you truly wish to comfort him, bring him to admit his sin, then repent of it.”
And thus, Jill begins her most difficult mission yet: to get the Scroogian oil man to give a shit.
In George Saunders’ second novel and thirteenth book, Vigil (Random House, 192 pages, $28), the Man Booker and National Book Award-winning author once again explores mortality—this time centered around an unlikeable, immoral character steeped in denial, self righteousness and corruption.
Vigil is a modern-day, more world-encompassing take on A Christmas Carol. On his deathbed, K. J. Boone is visited not only by the ghosts of people he’s hurt but by memories of the many times he was approached with accusations and protesters. Boone pays a spectral visit to an extraction project in Indonesia; relives the the falsification of documents; revisits the the fake and forged signatures on a petition against scientific evidence that his oil company had caused, and would continue to cause, irreversible damage to the environment (sound familiar?).
When confronted by a series of ghosts that include that of his primary school teacher, Boone is practically unfazed. He’s not empathetic to the lives and land that’s being destroyed right in front of him and willfully looks away, refusing to acknowledge who he is or what he’s done.
And therein lies a key question at the heart of this short, world-bending novel: What happens when people in power just…don’t care? When they are so far away the reality of most peoples’ lives, is there a way to wake them up? To change their minds?
Again and again, Vigil asks, “Who else could we have been but who we are?” The book poses another question, too: If a powerful person sees their faults and indeed admits those faults (even if that’s not until their deathbed), what’s in it for them?
One recurring ghostly visit is from the hilarious duo of Mel G. and Mel R., “imminent scientists” who reference their “stellar reputations” for their part in creating the atomic bomb. The Mels, who go by G. and R., appear at Boone’s bedside to convince the dying tycoon not to concede; even if he were to wake enough to utter any final words of repentance, they implore him not to admit any fault.
“‘You’re about to get away unscathed, pal,’” says G. Then R. chimes in with: ‘You, like us, were never proven wrong or publicly disgraced or forced to apologize.”
So how will our narrator Jill deal with her most difficult charge yet? Will she be able to convince him of repentance? And what will be revealed about her own life in the process?
Once again, the Lincoln in the Bardo author, who appeared at the 2022 Portland Book Festival (and, methinks will be on the 2026 roster) presents a masterclass in “show don’t tell” (shout out to all the writing students out there), playing with the novel and what it can do. Vigil is a somber look at the monumental effects a small handful of people have on the world, both at a micro and macro level; it’s about global destruction caused by the oil industry; and it’s about when greed squashes empathy and leads to a disregard for humanity’s laws, both literal and moral—all told with curiosity and a relieving humor through the moments we need it most.
READ IT: Vigil, by George Saunders, will be published Jan. 27, 2026. Saunders will be in Seattle on Tuesday, April 7 at Seattle Arts & Lectures, both in person and online.
