John Wilson

not a good man, objectively.

He was a billionaire, oil baron, and a very active climate change denier.

And yet he's not completely villainous in your telling.

Does that all go back to this ethos then of see the good, every facet of character?

He's not in the bardo, technically, in the same way that Willie Lincoln was, because this guy is about to die.

Is this closer to a sense of Catholic guilt and redemption?

Because you mentioned earlier you were brought up a Catholic.

And just a word about his spectral guide, the woman who is helping him get a sense of his life and whether he should redeem his sins and who can help him into the next stage of life.

Who is she?

Your next choice for this cultural life, George Saunders, is a high school teacher called Joe Lindblom.

And you say, a day we spent at a Chicago area science fair and what it taught me about kindness.

So we're back to kindness again.

Firstly, what subject was Mr. Lindblom teaching?

And this degree that you studied, geophysical engineering, leads to a really interesting chapter in your life, which is a job with an oil exploration company in Sumatra in Indonesia.

This is like virgin rainforest.

And given that vigil is partly about...

The spiritual guide trying to persuade a fossil fuels billionaire into repentance.

Is it a book in which you're also exercising some kind of personal guilt at having played a part and working directly for the oil industry?

There are some other fascinating entries in your CV in your early 20s.

and this is all according to the internet, you were a Chicago nightclub doorman, a roofer, and a slaughterhouse knuckle puller.