Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for July (2017)
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2017
Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2017
Longlisted for theMan Booker Prize 2017
If you want to see what this nation is all about,you have to ride the rails. Look outside as you speed through,and you'll find the true face of America. It was a joke,then,from the start. There was only darkness outside the windows on her journeys,and only ever would be darkness.
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence,but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans and she is approaching womanhood,where it is clear even greater pain awaits. When Caesar,a slave recently arrived from Virginia,tells her about the Underground Railroad,they take the perilous decision to escape to the North.
In Whitehead's razor-sharp imagining of the antebellum South,the Underground Railroad has assumed a physical form: a dilapidated box car pulled along subterranean tracks by a steam locomotive,picking up fugitives wherever it can. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina,in a city that initially seems like a haven. But its placid surface masks an infernal scheme designed for its unknowing black inhabitants. And even worse: Ridgeway,the relentless slave catcher sent to find Cora,is close on their heels.
Forced to flee again,Cora embarks on a harrowing flight,state by state,seeking true freedom. At each stop on her journey,Cora encounters a different world. As Whitehead brilliantly recreates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era,his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America,from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day.The Underground Railroadis at once the story of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shatteringly powerful meditation on history.
Publisher: Little,Brown Book GroupISBN: 9780708898406Number of pages: 400Weight: 320 gDimensions: 196 x 127 x 26 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'This is a luminous,furious,wildly inventive tale that not only shines a bright light on one of the darkest periods of history,but also opens up thrilling new vistas for the form of the novel itself.'-The Observer
'It has invaded both my sleeping and waking thoughts...Each character feels alive with a singular humanity...Whitehead is on a roll,the reviews have been sublime'- Bim Adewunmi,The Guardian
'An engrossing and harrowing novel'- The Sunday Times
'This thrilling tale of escape from a deep south plantation takes in terror,beauty and the history of human tragedy..This uncanny novel never attempts to deliver a message - instead it tells one of the most compelling stories I have ever read. Cora's strong,graceful hands touch on the greatest tragedies of our history.'- Cynthia Bond,The Guardian
'It's so good it's hard to praise it without whipping out the cliches: it's an elegant,devastating powerhouse of a book,following a young black woman all over America as she tries to escape the horrors of slavery. When it was published with Oprah's imprimatur,in August,it was universally acclaimed. It deserved it'- Michelle Dean,The Guardian
'One of the best,if not the best,book I've read this year...Whitehead never exploits his subject matter,and in fact it's the sparseness of the novel that makes it such a punch in the gut - Sarah Shaffi Stylist One of the best,if not the best,book I've read this year...Whitehead never exploits his subject matter,and in fact it's the sparseness of the novel that makes it such a punch in the gut'- Sarah Shaffi,Stylist
'Whitehead is a superb storyteller...(he) brilliantly intertwines his allegory with history...writing at the peak of his game...Whitehead's achievement is truly remarkable: by giving the Underground Railroad a new mythology,he has found a way of confronting other myths,older and persistent,about the United States. His book cannot have enough readers'- The Telegraph
'Bestselling author Colson Whitehead's novel is a searing indictment of slavery with a detailed inventory of man's inhumanity to man - and Cora's flight is a harrowing and shocking trip for the reader'- The Daily Mail
Colson Whitehead
One of America's most exciting and original novelists and essayists,multi-award winning author Colson Whitehead is best-known for his 2016,Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece The Underground Railroad. His other works include John Henry Days,Apex Hides the Hurt,Zone One and non-fiction works The Colossus of New York and The Noble Hustle: Poker,Beef Jerky & Death. His latest novel,The Nickel Boys, will be published in July 2019.
Visit the Colson Whitehead author page
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