George Saunders: “It’s an Agitating Book for a Lot of People” | A lightly spoiler-filled conversation with the author about his new novel, Vigil, climate change, and redemption. >In his most recent novel, *Vigil,* George Saunders grapples with these questions of climate denial and accountability through the story of K.J. Boone, a dying Big Oil executive who is visited in his final hours by Jill, a spirit whose task is to comfort people transitioning to the afterlife. It’s a supernatural premise, but the question at the heart of the novel is a pressing one: How should we balance accountability and mercy, even in cases—like Big Oil’s climate deception—where profound evil has been committed? It’s a markedly different question from those I’ve focused on in my career working to make fossil fuel companies pay for their climate crimes.…