The Underground Railroad: A Novel
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. One of The New York Times's 10 Best Books of the 21st Century The basis for the acclaimed original Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood--where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage--and a powerful meditation on the history we all share. Look for Colson Whitehead's new novel, Crook Manifesto!
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Community Reviews
Trigger warning, this is a Heavy and Heartbreaking book about all the terrors inflicted on black and brown bodies during the slavery period that will leave you indelibly wondering if they can ever balance the moral scale. Colson Whitehead is a masterful writer with a slew of great books under his belt. This one follows the harrowing experience of a few enslaved trying to find freedom along the famed secret passage north.
Whitehead deviates from what you might expect in a story about emancipation and the Underground Railroad. He expertly reminds us that not every story of escape is an inspiring one. That what may be more damning than turning of humans into chattel; is the way the wicked snatch fleeting moments of freedom from those who’ve long suffered to earn it.
Whitehead’s style is not all bleak. There is joy, romance, humor, and intrigue at a nation trying to find its identity in a changing world. Whitehead’s characters remind us that though most who sought freedom failed to fully hold it, the pursuit of freedom is a glory in itself. I have been fortunate to read many of Whitehead’s books and count this one among his best.
The brutality of slavery told through the voice of young woman’s harrowing journey. Compelling reading despite the difficult content. He is a wonderful author.
Content warning for enslavement, violence, on-page and referenced sexual abuse, manipulation, medical abuse, and related topics. The premise is amazing. The historical Underground Railroad reimagined as a real railroad with tracks and engineers and trains. I liked the characters, especially Cora. Her detached voice worked for me, especially with her frankness. I would have liked to see more in the background characters. I liked the ending too. Usually open-ended endings like that drive me crazy, but I thought it was perfect for this book.
I was a bit disappointed with the creative writing style on the plot of the main character running away from the slavery life to freedom. I felt like between the back stories that didn't really related or give other insight to the characters, and the side stories of other characters, this book fell flat. For a piece of fiction of a historical movement, the author used their period to instead write a modern day flight from the law. When the author was writing about the plight of man during the suffering of simply being black, it was well written and emotional.
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