On his deathbed, 87-year-old KJ Boone – who rose from childhood poverty, driven by caddying for rich men at the local golf club, to become an oil tycoon -examines his life with the help of angels, spirits and ghosts.

Infused with Buddhism and Catholicism (do we have free will?), it’s metaphysical and magical, but in the hands of George Saunders – who deservedly won the Booker Prize for Lincoln in the Bardo – that never gets in the way of realism, or of the thornier questions about the environmental damage wrought by the fossil fuel industry.

As the Financial Times reviewer puts it: “Saunders is earnest without being saccharine, moral and political without being didactic or self-righteous,” describing Vigil as a cross between William Faulkner and Citizen Kane.

Boone (and Saunders) also has some pointed questions for sanctimonious environmental activists. If you’ve had a heart attack and need emergency medical help, he asks, would you rather be “dying in the back of a horse cart stuck in the mud? Or zinging toward help, air con blasting?”

 – Ray

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