Liberation Day: Stories

Liberation Day (2022) is a short story collection by the American writer George Saunders. The collection compiles nine stories that were previously published from 2013-22 in outlets including The New Yorker. Saunders is a writer of contemporary literary fiction known for his dark, biting humor and critical approaches to current topical issues. Although the stories in Liberation Day are not connected to one another, they share commonalities that reappear throughout the collection. Multiple stories, for instance, are set in dystopian futures in which a governmental or citizen-led collective oppresses a large group of unaware characters. Multiple stories deal with characters who are aging and who must confront their loss of youth and The Inevitability of Aging and Death. Several stories weave between viewpoints, narrating the same event from multiple perspectives, thereby highlighting the idiosyncrasy of individual experience. Several of the stories combine all of these stylistic and thematic approaches to illustrate the destructive power of Oppression and Control.

The collection falls under the literary fiction genre, as the stories stylistically investigate questions about the human condition and prioritize originality of prose over plot and action. Saunders has been compared to late 20th-century literary satirists including Kurt Vonnegut for his humorous approaches to bleak contemporary conditions (Vandenburgh, Barbara.