Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this #1 New York Times bestseller chronicles a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. The basis for the acclaimed original Amazon 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 … 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, Harlem Shuffle!
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This book combines historical research with imagination with turns harsh reality into a kind of saga. Definitely a read for history majors as well as fans of good novels.
Possibly the most important book ever. What a brilliant writer to create such a unique book that could just as easily be set in the US of today with all of the current conflicts in race, religion and sexual identity. Prejudice is such an evil and far too many people think that being a different color, religion, or from a different part of the world justifies barbaric behavior.
Heartbreaking and so vividly portrayed. Many times I wanted to look away from the suffering and pain, but I was riveted to the writing and the fates of the characters.
Based on the real records of events, this book became a favourite of mine as I was reading it. Understated and all the more powerful for it, I thoroughly recommend this book.
It’s rare that a book gets to me physically – makes me actually uncomfortable while reading it. It’s intense, poignant, and unrelenting in places. I love the deviation Whitehead took from historical fact – this is a work of fiction and Whitehead weaves in and out of reality deftly, creating a world that feels real and gives the reader a painful and literal knowledge of the treatment of slaves and freemen. I love the distant POV that allows the author to move in and out of the characters – it created a buffer between the horror of the events and the Cora, the main character. I felt almost numb at times. This is brilliantly written. I even think the lack of character development was part of the overall feel of the book. I highly recommend this book. I finished this book two days ago and haven’t picked up another yet because I keep thinking about it.
This is a fabulous read full of original writing based on historical fact but adding a new dimension to something that we have all heard about but perhaps never truly understood
This is the latest book that has kept me up at night. I felt I was on the journey with Cora, the book was so lyrical and descriptive. Highly recommended.
I loved this book. Excellent characters I connected with and a storyline that held my interest.
Well-written as well as informative, I truly enjoyed this book. It evoked a number of emotions in me as it told the story of a horrific time in our country’s history.
A Pulitzer winner that’s also so action-packed and shocking you’ll have to cover the right-hand page with your hand so as not to skip ahead & see what’s coming (that’s what I did!).
I couldn’t put it down once I started and then didn’t want to pick it up near the end because I didn’t want it to be over. Yes, it’s a story about the underground railroad, but it’s more a story of incredible tragedy and human resilience. I’m both glad to have read it and deeply saddened because of the truth it contains.
What a powerful, eye-opening read. Not an easy subject to read about — slavery — but oh so important, especially with the current rising tide of white nationalism rearing it’s ugly head in our nation. Highly recommend this Pulitzer Prize winning novel.
Whitehead’s riveting novel immerses you in an adventure of survival unlike any other. Taking place in the antebellum south, the story focuses on Cora. Having reached the cusp of womanhood, she has been a slave on a large cotton plantation in Georgia. When she schemes with another slave named Caesar to flee the brutality of their daily lives, nothing can prepare them for the horrors that lie ahead. Whitehead confronts the inhumanity of slavery, and he shows us through the courage and resilience of Cora, Caesar, and a cast of other men and women in bondage that the human strength to survive can outlast even the most terrifying of circumstances.
As Cora sets out to attain her freedom, she finds help along the underground railroad. This route of travel can be reached from basements and cellars inside the cottages and barns of those risking their lives to assist runaways, or it can be found through the thick brush leading to caves in the countryside. The railroad constitutes no mere trail of waystations on the dangerous trek north to freedom. It is an actual train running through underground tunnels with rails stretching for hundreds of miles. The cleverness of Whitehead’s imagination couples with his rich and blistering details to produce a story that is both overwhelmingly real and yet fantastical in its reach and scope.
While showing the physical cruelties of life under slavery, Whitehead also addresses the brainwashing and manipulation that were instituted to distort the truth and perpetuate other unspeakable atrocities. The novel’s unsettling aspects are searing in their vividness, yet the heart-racing suspense bodes with the possibility of a hopeful outcome. Once Cora is distanced from the sickening reality of history, which Whitehead makes unforgettable, she has opportunity for a future. The Underground Railroad may break your heart, but it will leave you with the pieces if you what to put it back together.
Weaving together aspects of many slave narratives and underground railroad expositions, Colson has written an unsentimental look at not only racism but intransigent belief. Cora is a young, motherless slave girl who escapes from her plantation with Caesar, a recently arrived slave from Virginia. Together, after a harrowing incident where Cora kills a boy who was attacking her, they make it to a station of the underground railroad hoping it will take them to safety. But that is only the beginning of their journey. The railroad has many stations and they have to choose where to get off. Each choice they make has consequences. Places that at first appear benign, have their own hidden terrors. Reminiscent of Gulliver’s travels in a loose way, the story of Cora’s steadfast journey to freedom is both horrifying and poignant as she keeps her hope up remembering the story of her mother who escaped when Cora was very young and, as Cora imagines, made it all the way to freedom. It’s impossible to read this book and not be repelled and ashamed at the extent of human cruelty. And yet, Cora is a symbol of hope for what may be.
The author did a wonderful job of taking the main character and following her through every phase to freedom. She led a harrowing existence but never gave up hope.
Tragic story of slavery and an attempt of escaping to freedom. The abolitionists helping the runaways were in as much danger as the escaped slaves and several suffered horrible deaths. Although the book is technically labeled fiction the subject matter is not!
We always think we know so damn much about racism in America and then we read something like this and learn how little we knew. Whitehead takes his character through the gamut of racist America, from slavery in Georgia to paternalistic racism in South Carolina, through the seething and violent bigotry of North Carolina and beyond. We all need to read this book. Now.
What an immense, powerful read! Important, deep, and challenging, I found it infinitely inspiring, the power of bravery over hatred, the fierce brightness of spirit. Highly recommended.
Didn’t even finish this book. Guess I didn’t understand the alliteration, mystical story line.
Creative use of the train as if the movement of fugitive slaves was by the railroad.