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#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!
Publisher : Vintage; Reprint edition (January 30, 2016)
Language : English
Paperback : 336 pages
ISBN-10 : 0345804325
ISBN-13 : 978-0345804327
Lexile measure : 890L
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 5.19 x 0.76 x 8 inches
Customers say
Customers find the plot riveting, jarring, and gripping. They also describe the emotional impact as gut-wrenching, moving, and exquisite. Readers also appreciate the themes of triumph of the human spirit, 21st century importance, and understanding the roots of racial inequality. Opinions are mixed on readability, emotional tone, and characters. Some find the writing well-written and easy to read, while others say it lacks a definitive meaning and is preachy. Reader opinions also differ on the violence/gore, with some finding it casual and disturbing, while other find it shocking and gory.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
