My colleague nudged me toward Fox 8 and then, when I loved that, very kindly let me borrow his copy of Lincoln in the Bardo. Side note - reading someone else’s book is genuinely more stressful than holding someone’s new born child.

Where do I even start? I have read a lot of fantastic books lately but none of them have felt this ‘complete’ or, and I cannot quite believe I’m using this term, so utterly flawless. Undoubtedly literary, the format and concept are totally bizarre and yet I was utterly transfixed from the first page to the last. It is a truly remarkable feat that in a book with so many characters, not a single moment or turn of phrase feels less than necessary.

From contemporary newspaper reports of Abraham Lincoln returning to a crypt to hold the body of his dead eleven year old son, Saunders has spun a truth-laced fiction that is painful, darkly funny, eerie, unsettling, strangely uplifting and so totally unlike anything else I’ve ever read. It is poetic, historical but also strangely contemporary and it regularly alternated between making me laugh and making me cry.

If you aren’t a literary fan or have no interest in character-driven narratives, you’ll probably hate it but if you like picking up books that are a little off-the-wall, this is a literary experience you can’t miss out on.

A book that will stay with me for a very long time to come (metaphorically, that is. I will be returning the book. I’m not a monster) and I suspect, after a little longer to reflect, this could well end on my list of all time favourites.

All the stars. Literally, all of them.