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is subject to risk vanguard marketing corporation distributor. Welcome to Zero. I'm Akshatrati.

This week, an oil CEO in the Bardo.

Thank you. This week, an oil CEO in the Bardo. A decade ago, the Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh gave a series of lectures titled The Great

Derangement, where he argued that contemporary fiction in all forms has been ignoring the climate

crisis, and that was adding to the peril humans already faced.

Many have heeded his calls since, in the form of books, movies, plays, even oratorio.

So, this year on Zero, we are running a series called Imagine, to delve into what some of our most creative minds can do to help us better understand our predicament.

My guest today is George Saunders, one of America's best storytellers.

You may know him for his 2017 novel, Lincoln and the Bardo, which won the Booker Prize.

This week, George has a new novel out, titled Vigil.

In a nutshell, we find ourselves at the bedside of somebody who I imagine to be kind of a 1998 to 2000 era oil executive,

the last night of his life, the last hours of his life, we're joined by a woman, the ghost of a

woman who died in 1976. So somewhat, I guess, like in a Christmas carol, she's there to help him,

but then it kind of goes

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