Fierce, blood-stained and breathtaking, The Last Judgement is a lamentation on America's original sin of slavery and its attempted expiation in the civil war. Focusing on the dying and unconscious Lincoln, the novel weaves its terrible and stylish magic around questions of guilt, atonement, shame and retribution. No comforting Zen bardo here, this is old testament history, where vengeance is the Lord's and redemption uncertain.