Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2026-02-10
Ezra Klein & George Saunders: books mentioned on The Ezra Klein Show
The Darker Side of George Saunders | The Ezra Klein Show
Ezra Klein discussed Vigil by George Saunders. George Saunders recommended I Will Bear Witness by Victor Klemperer, Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel, and The Place of Tides by James Rebanks, and discussed The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Vigil
Vigil by George Saunders is a contemporary novel exploring deep existential themes, mortality, and moral reckoning through the lens of a dying protagonist.
Discussed“But reading his new novel, Vigil, which is about an oil tycoon on his deathbed being visited by angels and people from his past, trying to get him to reassess his own life, began to realize that Saunders is more interested in something else now.”
Where to get it
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy’s novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, examines the superficiality of conventional bourgeois life and a dying man's agonizing confrontation with his own mortality.
Discussed“One of the books I had in mind while I was writing this was death of Ivan Illich by Toltoy. In that book it's it's a much more modest sinner and his sin is just that he he lived his life by the credo that I just want to do what everybody else is doing.”
Where to get it
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I Will Bear Witness
I Will Bear Witness by Victor Klemperer is a powerful and harrowing historical diary documenting the daily life, increasing persecution, and gradual disenfranchisement of a Jewish professor in Germany under the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1941.
Recommended“Well, there's one I'm sure you read this, but um, I will bear witness by Victor Clemper. It's an incredible I bought this recently, but I have not read it yet.”
Where to get it
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Red Cavalry
Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel is a classic collection of short stories depicting the brutal, chaotic, and kaleidoscopic experiences of the Soviet-Polish War through the eyes of a Jewish intellectual serving in a Cossack cavalry unit.
Recommended“And then the other one I I would recommend, I maybe have recommended it before because I love it so much, but it's Red Cavalry by Isaac Babble, the Jewish Russian writer.”
Where to get it
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The Place of Tides
James Rebanks's non-fiction work transports readers to a remote island setting to examine a quiet way of living away from modern distractions.
Recommended“And then the third one would be more u maybe more of a an antidote. It's a beautiful book called The Place of Tides by uh James Reebanks and he just goes non-fiction and he goes to uh an island um I think it's off Iceland and he lives with this woman...”
Where to get it
